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Posted on 04/09/2017 12:45:18 PM PDT by markomalley
Congratulations to Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, the 113th justice of the Supreme Court of the United States — and congratulations to his incoming law clerks!
Upon information and belief, they are as follows. For the remainder of October Term 2016:
1. Mike Davis (Iowa 2004 / Gorsuch)
2. Jamil Jaffer (Chicago 2003 / E. Jones / Gorsuch)
3. Jane Kucera Nitze (Harvard 2008 / Gorsuch / Sotomayor)
4. Matt Owen (Michigan 2008 / Gorsuch / Scalia)
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Lawyers, Never Enter Time Again
Lawyers, Never Enter Time Again
Let’s be honest — everyone hates keeping track of billable hours.
For October Term 2017:
1. David Feder (Harvard 2014 / Gorsuch)
2. Matt Owen (Michigan 2008 / Gorsuch / Scalia)
3. Eric Tung (Chicago 2010 / Gorsuch / Scalia)
4. Lucas Walker (Harvard 2009 / Gorsuch / Alito)
Some brief comments. Justice Gorsuch has apparently hired two groups of clerks — one to start on Monday and to clerk through the end of OT 2016, and one for OT 2017. There’s one clerk, Matt Owen, who will span both terms.
New justices tend to like (1) former star clerks of theirs and (2) former SCOTUS clerks, and this group has plenty of both. All eight have clerked previously for then-Judge Gorsuch. Four have clerked for the Supreme Court, for three different justices: Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and the late Justice Antonin Scalia, whose seat Justice Gorsuch will fill.
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A number of these clerks were involved in the effort to confirm Judge Gorsuch — including David Feder, who took leave from Munger Tolles to work on the confirmation process, and Jane Nitze, who starred in a pro-Gorsuch ad from the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN). (Jane Nitze is not, by the way, liberal; please note the UPDATE to this post.)
Sometimes you can draw clues about a judge’s ideological leanings from the other judges his clerks worked for. In this case, it’s worth noting that almost all of the incoming NMG clerks previously clerked for conservative stalwarts — Justice Scalia, Justice Alito, and Judge Edith Jones of the Fifth Circuit (whom I once dubbed, tongue planted partially in cheek, a “horsewoman of the right-wing apocalypse”).
As you might expect from their law school graduation years (they’re not kiddies), these clerks have tons of other valuable work experience outside clerking. For example, several worked in the Justice Department: Jane Nitze in the Office of Legal Counsel, Jamil Jaffer in the Office of Legal Policy and the National Security Division, and Matt Owen and Eric Tung in the Solicitor General’s office as Bristow Fellows.
The group exhibits diversity on some fronts but not others. There’s only one woman, Jane Nitze, but Jamil Jaffer and Eric Tung are clerks of color.
What happens to the individuals previously hired by Judge Gorsuch for the Tenth Circuit? If the past is any indication, they will magically find homes with other judges in the circuit courts — often similarly prestigious or high-powered judges — and then, after getting experience, eventually go on to clerk for Justice Gorsuch. (This is, for example, what Justice Sotomayor did — but she spread out her “orphaned” Second Circuit clerks over a few Terms, so she could balance them with fresh hires and with clerks who had SCOTUS experience.)
Once again, congrats to Justice Gorsuch, and congrats to his new clerks!
P.S. I have a high degree of confidence in this information (multiple sources for most hires), but it has not been confirmed by any of the clerks listed above or by anyone else in “Gorsuchland” (so Justice Gorsuch should not worry about his clerks being “leakers”). If you see errors, please email me, subject line “Gorsuch clerks,” or text 646-820-8477, including the words “Gorsuch clerks” somewhere in your message. Thanks!
UPDATE (6 p.m.): An earlier version of this post erroneously stated that Jamil Jaffer worked in the Office of Legal Counsel (as opposed to the Office of Legal Policy). Also note that Jaffer helped in the Gorsuch confirmation effort, testifying in support of his former boss. (Also a witness, but called by the Senate minority: the “other” Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU lawyer turned director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, who testified that the Judiciary Committee “should not confirm Judge Gorsuch without first assuring itself that he will protect individual rights, and the constitutional authority of Congress and the courts, in the sphere of national security”).
Everything I have ever read says that the REAL law work is done by the clerks. The Justice just says “I want to rule THIS way on this item” and it is up to the clerks to go backwards from there to find the legal justification.
Does anyone know otherwise?
Interesting that he has a 7-to-1 male-to-female ratio, after having warned that most women don’t want to work the long hours that many legal jobs require.
Sounds like statistics. Funny thing about the Pharisees and Sadducees interpreting law, they made it more complicated and heavier on the people. I love the OT law. Simple, precise, beneficial to individuals and society.
I’ve read that a judge will know how he is going to rule after reading the briefs.
Should choosing a Sotomayor clerk raise any red flags?
I think the clerks do the grunt work but the justices write their own or have massive input. Scalia had an incredible way of writing and I’ve heard that was one of the strong points Gorsuch brought to the job
I think it depends more on the justice. Many are just rubber stamps who seldom write anything original themselves. I’d say that Scalia was a rare exception.
I thought the same thing.
Michael Davis, Attorney Denver, Colorado Law Practice Previous: Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP
Education: University of Iowa College of Law
My father was a former Reagan era candidate for a SCOTUS nomination (he declined, dammit). Anyway, it’s different with every jurist, as far as I’ve been taught. Additionally, as you likely well know, not every judge discludes personal politics from their background to form opinions, so that makes such “real law work” - as you said - moot.
That’s certainly the case with liberals, but to the extent it’s true, it’s corrupt.
That’s certainly the case with liberals, but to the extent it’s true, it’s corrupt.Everything I have ever read says that the REAL law work is done by the clerks. The Justice just says “I want to rule THIS way on this item” and it is up to the clerks to go backwards from there to find the legal justification. Does anyone know otherwise? - freedumb2003
Scalia - and Gorsuch - said that he analyzes the law and comes to a conclusion - but when he finds he likes the result too much, he goes over the law again with a fine tooth comb to reassure himself that he is ruling on the law rather than on what he wishes the law were.
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