feeder judge

File:LearnedHand1910a.jpg was one of the earliest feeder judges in the United States.]]

Justices in the early history of the United States Supreme Court hired law clerks straight from law school based on personal recommendations. But over time, applicants to Supreme Court clerk posts began to more often have prior experience, and between 1962 and 2002, 98 percent of Supreme Court clerks had clerked before.{{sfn|Ward|Weidan|2006|p=77}} As the court began to draw more frequently from prior clerks, particular lower-court judges naturally had more consistent success placing their clerks with the Supreme Court. This phenomenon probably began with Judge Learned Hand,{{cite journal|last=Ross|first=David E.|year=2013|title=Feeding the right stuff: Would you clerk for judge Learned Hand?|journal=Journal of Law: A Periodical Laboratory of Legal Scholarship|publisher=The Green Bag|volume=3|issue=2|page=189|ssrn=2356535}} and had been established by the time of Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1969, although data before his tenure is unreliable.{{sfn|Ward|Weidan|2006|p=77}} Although the phenomenon had thus existed for quite some time, the first published uses of the phrase were in a 1990 article by Judge Patricia Wald and a 1991 article by Judge Alex Kozinski, both feeder judges themselves.{{cite journal|last=Garrow|first=David|title=Acolytes in Arms|journal=The Green Bag|volume=9|issue=2|page=417 n.28|url=http://howappealing.law.com/GarrowGreenBagReviews.pdf}}

Statistical analysis comparing the feeders of the 1976-1985 and 1995-2004 terms suggests the reliance on feeders has remained consistent since the Burger era, or at most has seen modest growth.{{sfn|Baum|Ditslear|2010|pp=31–33}} However, the feeder system has become more concentrated as more judges are feeding to specific justices than in the past.{{sfn|Baum|Ditslear|2010|p=35}}

During the 1969 to 1986 tenure of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, 85 percent of Supreme Court clerks had previously served on a court of appeals and 12 percent on a district court. For the 1986–2005 William Rehnquist court, these numbers had respectively risen to 92 percent and dropped to 7 percent.{{sfn|Ward|Weidan|2006|p=77}} Although most feeder judges are therefore court of appeals judges, some district court judges are feeders. Judges Louis H. Pollak and Pierre N. Leval were historically feeders while on the district court, and district Judge Jed S. Rakoff is essentially a feeder since he co-hires clerks with appellate feeder Judge Robert Katzmann.{{cite web|url=http://abovethelaw.com/2015/07/supreme-court-clerk-hiring-watch-who-is-not-retiring-from-scotus/|title=Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Who Is NOT Retiring From SCOTUS?|last=Lat|first=David|author-link =David Lat| date=July 8, 2015|publisher=Above the Law|access-date=9 July 2015}}

Various factors affect which judges become feeders. Ideological alignment with justices is usually an important factor, and conservative feeder judges place more clerks with conservative justices and vice versa.{{sfn|Baum|Ditslear|2010|pp=37–40}}{{sfn|Ward|Weidan|2006|pp=83–85}} In fact, feeder judges are notorious for being on the extremes of the judicial spectrum, with comparatively few ideologically moderate feeder judges.{{sfn|Garrow|p=418}}

For some, the reputation as a feeder judge is a draw. "It's a little bit of a prestige matter," Kozinski has remarked.{{cite journal|last=Bossert|first=Rex|date=October 20, 1997|title=Clerks' Route to Top Court|journal=National Law Journal}}, quoted in Baum, pp. 27-28 (2010) Being regarded as a feeder can be a way to stand out among the ranks of courts of appeals judges.{{sfn|Baum|Ditslear|2010|p=27}} Indeed, many feeder judges cherish this status so much they modulate their own clerkship hiring based on an applicant's compatibility with the justices, and pass over promising clerks because they are doubtful of the applicant's chances of securing a Supreme Court clerkship."There are some judges who like to position themselves as feeders to the Supreme Court, since that's one way that a judge can make a reputation for him or herself," said Joan Larsen, a faculty clerkship adviser at the University of Michigan Law School. "I have had a feeder judge say to me, 'Yes, Joan, I'm sure he would be a great clerk, but I can't send him upstairs.'"{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/business/judges-compete-for-law-clerks-on-a-lawless-terrain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|title=Judges Compete for Law Clerks on a Lawless Terrain|last=Rampell|first=Catherine|date=September 23, 2011|work=The New York Times|access-date=12 June 2014}} Additionally, because feeder clerkships are themselves so highly desired, the judges benefit by being able to hire some the most talented of the clerkship applicant pool in a given year.{{sfn|Baum|Ditslear|2010|p=28}}

Some judges have an edge placing clerks with justices for whom they themselves were once clerks. Judge Michael Luttig, for example, clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia while Scalia was on the D.C. Circuit, and Luttig placed three-quarters of his clerks with Scalia or Justice Clarence Thomas.{{sfn|Ward|Weidan|2006|p=83}} Kozinski clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy, and of the 15 clerks he placed on the court between 1995 and 2004, eight were with Kennedy.{{sfn|Baum|Ditslear|2010|pp=41–42}} Beyond connections to particular justices, the D.C. Circuit is regarded a feeder circuit to the entire court, due partially to the simple fact that justices live, work and socialize with those judges in Washington, D.C. as well as being a prestigious circuit in its own right.{{sfn|Ward|Weidan|2006|p=80}}

• Lists of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

{{reflist}}

== External links ==

• [http://abovethelaw.com/tag/feeder-judges/ Above the Law] articles about feeder judges

Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

Category:Supreme Court of the United States