Law clerks have assisted the justices of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in 1882. Each justice is permitted to have between three and four law clerks per Court term. Most persons serving in this capacity are recent law school graduates (and typically graduated at the top of their class). Among their many functions, clerks do legal research that assists justices in deciding what cases to accept and what questions to ask during oral arguments, prepare

memoranda A memorandum ( : memoranda; abbr: memo; from the Latin ''memorandum'', "(that) which is to be remembered") is a written message that is typically used in a professional setting. Commonly abbreviated "memo," these messages are usually brief and ...

, and draft orders and

opinions An opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, rather than facts, which are true statements. Definition A given opinion may deal with subjective matters in which there is no conclusive finding, or it may deal with ...

. After retiring from the Court, a justice may continue to employ a law clerk, who may be assigned to provide additional assistance to an active justice or may assist the retired justice when sitting by designation with a lower court.

Table of law clerks

The following is a table of law clerks serving the

associate justice Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some sta ...

holding Supreme Court seat 9 (the Court's ninth associate justice seat by order of creation), which was established on March 3, 1863 by the 37th Congress through the

Tenth Circuit Act of 1863 The Tenth Circuit Act of 1863 () was a federal statute which increased the size of the Supreme Court of the United States from nine justices to ten, and which also reorganized the circuit courts of the federal judiciary. The newly created Tenth C ...

(). This seat is currently occupied by Justice Neil Gorsuch.

References

Additional sources

* Baier, Paul R. (1973). "The Law Clerks: Profile of an Institution," ''Vanderbilt L. Rev.'' 26: 1125–77. * "Georgia Law Alumni Who Have Clerked for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice,
Advocate
Spring/Summer 2004 (listing 6 names). * Judicial Clerkship Handbook
USC Gould Law School
2013-2014, p. 33, Appendix B. * Newland, Charles A. (June 1961). "Personal Assistants to the Supreme Court Justices: The Law Clerks," ''Oregon L. Rev.'' 40: 306–07.
News of Supreme Court clerks
University of Virginia Law School, list of clerks, 2004-2018.
University of Michigan clerks to the Supreme Court, 1991-2017
University of Michigan Law School Web site (2016). Retrieved September 20, 2016. * Ward, Artemus and David L. Weiden (2006). ''Sorcerers' Apprentices: 100 Years of Law Clerks at the United States Supreme Court''. New York, NY: New York University Press. , .

External links

Supreme Court of the United States
official website
SCOTUS Justices: How Do Their Clerks Help Them?
Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal, by PBS NewsHour, via youtube {{SCOTUS horizontal Seat 09 Supreme Court of the United States people