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Boasberg is considered a feeder judge, sending numerous clerks to the Supreme Court.[14]
Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Ranking The Non-Traditional Feeder Judges
Which state-court and federal district judges send their clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court?
By David Lat on August 20, 2015 6:03 pm
When we last discussed Supreme Court clerks in these pages, we talked about where they go after their SCOTUS clerkships (specifically, the growing number of them going to Capitol Hill; although note the dissenting voices saying this isn’t a new thing). Today let’s talk about a topic that’s of keen interest to ambitious law students and young lawyers: where Supreme Court clerks work before their high-court clerkships, i.e., the types of lower-court judges with the reputations and connections to “feed” their clerks to the justices — aka “feeder judges.”
Last year, we shared with you a list of the nation’s top feeder judges from October Term 2009 through October Term 2013. The list could be updated based on October Term 2014 and October Term 2015 (and maybe we’ll do that someday), but it wouldn’t look terribly different. You’d still see a list dominated by federal appeals court judges, with heavy representation from the D.C. and Ninth Circuits. Of the 13 judges on last year’s list — prepared by Justice David Stras of the Minnesota Supreme Court, himself a former SCOTUS clerk — five of the judges are from the D.C. Circuit and four are from the Ninth Circuit (including my former boss, the fabulous Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain). The remaining four feeders are from the Second, Fourth, Sixth, and Tenth Circuits.
Readers have recently written to us to inquire: what about non-traditional feeder judges, e.g., feeder judges from district courts or from state courts? Looking at the five Terms for which we have complete, official clerk rosters — October Term 2011 through October Term 2015 — here are all the district judges we believe to have sent more than one clerk to SCOTUS in this five-year period. (Please let us know of any errors you notice.)
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Jed S. Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.): 8
2. (tie) James E. Boasberg (D.D.C.): 4
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(tie) Gary S. Feinerman (N.D. Ill.): 4
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Denise L. Cote (S.D.N.Y.): 3
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(tie) Charles Breyer (N.D. Cal.): 2
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(tie) John Gleeson (E.D.N.Y.): 2
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(tie) Richard J. Sullivan (S.D.N.Y.): 2
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(tie) Myron H. Thompson (M.D. Ala.): 2
UPDATE (8:15 p.m.): Add John D. Bates (D.D.C.), with two clerks during this period: Graham Phillips (OT 2014/Roberts) and (Aaron Pennekamp (OT 2015/Breyer OT15).
UPDATE (8/21/2015, 2:15 p.m.): Add Douglas P. Woodlock (D. Mass.), with two clerks during this period: Mark Musico (OT 2014/Ginsburg) and Ilana Gelfman (OT 2014/Breyer).
Note that this list doesn’t include the October Term 2016 class, which is not yet complete (as you can see below). So it doesn’t reflect the fast-growing feeding power of Judge Amul Roger Thapar (E.D. Ky.), who has one clerk in OT 2015 and two clerks in OT 2016.
The other district judges whose OT 2016 feeds aren’t reflected in the list above are Judge Rakoff (two clerks), Judge Charles Breyer (one clerk), and Judge Royce Lamberth (one clerk). Judge Rakoff, of course, has his famous “tag team” arrangement with Chief Judge Robert Katzmann (2d Cir.). Judge Breyer is the brother of Justice Stephen Breyer (but note that not all of Judge Breyer’s clerks go to Justice Breyer).
Now, on to state judges and their status as feeder judges (the subject of a subplot in Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link)). Here is what one tipster shared with us:
I know you regularly highlight federal appellate feeder judges, and even have mentioned new federal district court feeder judges. But one type of feeder judge you’re overlooking are state supreme court feeder judges. By my count, there are currently five:
Thomas Lee (UT): fed to Thomas (2014).
Goodwin Liu (CA): fed to Sotomayor (2014) and Ginsburg (2014).
Daniel Winfree (AK): fed to Scalia (2014).
Margaret Marshall (MA): fed to Breyer (2011).
Allison H. Eid (CO): fed to Thomas (2013).
Any others that this source might have missed? If so, email us or text us (646-820-8477), and we’ll update. (Please include the words “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your email or text message, perhaps as the subject line of your email or the first words of your text, because that’s how we locate these tips in our inundated inbox.)