Legislation Faculties
Wish to be a Supreme Court docket clerk? It helps to graduate from these regulation colleges and schools
The U.S. Supreme Court docket as composed June 30, 2022, to current. Photograph by Fred Schilling through the Supreme Court website.
Greater than two-thirds of regulation clerks for U.S. Supreme Court docket justices come from simply 5 regulation colleges, in accordance with a examine overlaying the interval between 1980 and 2020.
These regulation colleges are Harvard College, Yale College, Stanford College, Columbia College and the College of Chicago, the New York Times reported final week. And the examine discovered that some school levels additionally rely.
“You may suppose that doing effectively at a kind of regulation colleges after which acquiring a prestigious clerkship with a federal appeals courtroom decide would verify the required bins,” the New York Occasions studies. “However it seems that undergraduate levels appear to matter too. Going to varsity at Harvard, Yale or Princeton—even after controlling for regulation faculty grades—gave candidates a major enhance, the examine discovered.”
The study appeared on the backgrounds of 1,426 former Supreme Court docket regulation clerks. It was carried out by Albert H. Yoon, a professor on the College of Toronto College of Legislation; Tracey E. George, a professor on the Vanderbilt College Legislation Faculty; and Mitu Gulati, a professor on the College of Virginia Faculty of Legislation.
The Balls and Strikes weblog additionally coated the examine.
The weblog and the New York Occasions famous that Supreme Court docket justices even have elite levels. 4 justices have regulation levels from Yale Legislation Faculty and 4 from Harvard Legislation Faculty. Justice Amy Coney Barrett is the exception, who has a regulation diploma from the College of Notre Dame Legislation Faculty.
Six justices have undergraduate levels from Harvard, Yale or Princeton. The exceptions are Justice Clarence Thomas, a graduate of the Faculty of the Holy Cross; Justice Neil Gorsuch, a graduate of Columbia College; and Barrett, a graduate of Rhodes Faculty, in accordance with their online biographies, a Business Insider article and a 2020 Rhodes Faculty press release.
Each lawyer within the working for a Supreme Court docket clerkship “has ticked all of the bins,” in accordance with the examine. They’re a “selective regulation faculty, high grades, regulation assessment membership, glowing references from regulation college. After commencement, they’ve clerked for one of many 179 energetic U.S. Court docket of Appeals judges, ideally one who has a status for sending clerks to the courtroom.”
About 700 regulation grads per 12 months meet these {qualifications}. However solely 36 safe a Supreme Court docket clerkship.
“We discover that instructional pedigree, versus educational efficiency or every other qualification, usually distinguishes the winners from the also-rans. The courtroom clerkship choice course of, like different elite labor
markets, proves to be a mix of standing and advantage the place standing usually prevails,” the examine authors wrote.
Hat tip to How Appealing.
