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Behind Every Great Judge The Position of Supreme Court Clerks

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  Behind Every Great Judge:
  The Position of Supreme Court Clerks
  
  Susan Goff
  Capital Hill Seminar
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Behind Every Great Judge:
  The Position of Supreme Court Clerks
  
  
       Behind every great judge is his or her law clerk. Each year, the nation's top law students compete fiercely for judicial clerkships. At the top of the clerkship pyramid is the Supreme Court, where clerks have been serving since 1882. The role of the judicial clerk began when Horace Gray, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, hired a young graduate of Harvard Law to be his law secretary, at his own expense. Many other justices followed suit and began to hire graduates to help minimize their workload, but it was not until 1922 that Congress appropriated money for Justices to hire one clerk each at a salary of $3,600 per year. Now typically Justices have three or four clerks working for them.
                 Through out this paper, I will explain the position of the Judicial Law Clerk, and the lasting benefits of having the opportunity to work first hand with the men and women responsible for decisions made in the Supreme Court System. I will also discuss the challenges law students face in the application and interview process, and the responsibilities a law clerk will face once he has been accepted for this yearlong task. I will demonstrate the importance of confidentiality and loyalty that clerks to their Justices, and the rules and regulations that clerks are obligated to follow to ensure ethical conduct. Finally, I will discuss how the role as a clerk is criticized because of the access to sensitive material and leverage they may possess in getting Justice's vote in order to get a particular case on the Court's docket...