Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices

Supreme Court justices have long relied on law clerks to help process the work of the Court. Yet few outside the Court are privy to the behind-the-scenes bonds that form between justices and their clerks.

In Of Courtiers and Kings, Todd C. Peppers and Clare Cushman offer an intimate new look at the personal and professional relationships of law clerks with their justices. Going beyond the book’s widely acclaimed predecessor, I n Chambers, the vignettes collected here range from reflections on how serving as clerks at the Supreme Court impacted the careers of such justices as Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, William Rehnquist, John G. Roberts Jr., and John Paul Stevens to personal recollections written by parents and children who have both served as Supreme Court clerks. While individual essays often focus on a single justice and his or her corps of clerks—including how that justice selected and utilized the clerks—taken as a whole the volume provides a macro-level view of the evolution of the role of the Supreme Court law clerk. Drawing on a rich repository of such anecdotes, insights, and experience, the volume relates in a clear and accessible style how the clerking function has changed over time and what it is like for law clerks to be witnesses to history.

Offering a rare glimpse into a normally unseen world, Of Courtiers and Kings reveals the Court’s increasing reliance on law clerks and raises important questions about the selection, utilization, and influence of law clerks.

Praise for In Chambers:

"An excellent book.... It's interesting for many different reasons, not the least of which as a reminder of how much of a bastion of elitism the Court has always been."—Atlantic Monthly

"The best parts of the book are the behind-the-scenes descriptions of life at the court.... [A]n impressive and comprehensive book."—Associated Press

1121798033
Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices

Supreme Court justices have long relied on law clerks to help process the work of the Court. Yet few outside the Court are privy to the behind-the-scenes bonds that form between justices and their clerks.

In Of Courtiers and Kings, Todd C. Peppers and Clare Cushman offer an intimate new look at the personal and professional relationships of law clerks with their justices. Going beyond the book’s widely acclaimed predecessor, I n Chambers, the vignettes collected here range from reflections on how serving as clerks at the Supreme Court impacted the careers of such justices as Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, William Rehnquist, John G. Roberts Jr., and John Paul Stevens to personal recollections written by parents and children who have both served as Supreme Court clerks. While individual essays often focus on a single justice and his or her corps of clerks—including how that justice selected and utilized the clerks—taken as a whole the volume provides a macro-level view of the evolution of the role of the Supreme Court law clerk. Drawing on a rich repository of such anecdotes, insights, and experience, the volume relates in a clear and accessible style how the clerking function has changed over time and what it is like for law clerks to be witnesses to history.

Offering a rare glimpse into a normally unseen world, Of Courtiers and Kings reveals the Court’s increasing reliance on law clerks and raises important questions about the selection, utilization, and influence of law clerks.

Praise for In Chambers:

"An excellent book.... It's interesting for many different reasons, not the least of which as a reminder of how much of a bastion of elitism the Court has always been."—Atlantic Monthly

"The best parts of the book are the behind-the-scenes descriptions of life at the court.... [A]n impressive and comprehensive book."—Associated Press

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Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices

Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices

Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices

Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices

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Overview

Supreme Court justices have long relied on law clerks to help process the work of the Court. Yet few outside the Court are privy to the behind-the-scenes bonds that form between justices and their clerks.

In Of Courtiers and Kings, Todd C. Peppers and Clare Cushman offer an intimate new look at the personal and professional relationships of law clerks with their justices. Going beyond the book’s widely acclaimed predecessor, I n Chambers, the vignettes collected here range from reflections on how serving as clerks at the Supreme Court impacted the careers of such justices as Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, William Rehnquist, John G. Roberts Jr., and John Paul Stevens to personal recollections written by parents and children who have both served as Supreme Court clerks. While individual essays often focus on a single justice and his or her corps of clerks—including how that justice selected and utilized the clerks—taken as a whole the volume provides a macro-level view of the evolution of the role of the Supreme Court law clerk. Drawing on a rich repository of such anecdotes, insights, and experience, the volume relates in a clear and accessible style how the clerking function has changed over time and what it is like for law clerks to be witnesses to history.

Offering a rare glimpse into a normally unseen world, Of Courtiers and Kings reveals the Court’s increasing reliance on law clerks and raises important questions about the selection, utilization, and influence of law clerks.

Praise for In Chambers:

"An excellent book.... It's interesting for many different reasons, not the least of which as a reminder of how much of a bastion of elitism the Court has always been."—Atlantic Monthly

"The best parts of the book are the behind-the-scenes descriptions of life at the court.... [A]n impressive and comprehensive book."—Associated Press


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813937274
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Publication date: 12/03/2015
Series: Constitutionalism and Democracy
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 448
File size: 2 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Todd C. Peppers, Henry H. and Trudye H. Fowler Professor of Public Affairs at Roanoke College and a Visiting Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, is the author of Courtiers of the Marble Palace: The Rise and Influence of the Supreme Court Law Clerk and the coeditor, with Artemus Ward, of In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices (Virginia). Clare Cushman, Director of Publications at the Supreme Court Historical Society, is the author of Courtwatchers: Eyewitness Accounts in Supreme Court History and the editor of Supreme Court Decisions and Women’s Rights and The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-2012.

Table of Contents

Foreword John Paul Stevens ix

Introduction 1

Part I The Early Days of the Clerkship Institution

The "Lost" Clerks of the White Court Era Clare Cushman 15

Summer Vacation with Will and Misch: Chief Justice William Howard Taft and His Law Clerks Todd C. Peppers 48

Beyond Knox: James C. McReynolds's Other Law Clerks, 1914-1941 Clare Cushman 67

The Clerks to Justices George Sutherland and Pierce Butler Barry Cushman 67

Part II The Rise of Clerks

Justice Hugo Black and His Law Clerks: Matchmaking and Match Point Todd C. Peppers 137

Clerking for Stanley F. Reed John D. Fassett 152

No College, No Prior Clerkship: How Jim Marsh Became Justice Jackson's Law Clerk John Q. Barrett 170

A Great American: Tribute to Mr. Justice Burton Raymond S. Troubh 189

Law Clerk for Chief Justice Vinson Arthur R. Seder Jr. 201

Tom Clark and His Law Clerks Mimi Clark Gronlund 211

Learning Many Things as a Law Clerk to Justice John Marshall Harlan Norman Dorsen 217

A Two-For Clerkship: Stanley F. Reed and Earl Warren Earl C. Dudley Jr. 231

Part III Modern Clerks

Memories of Clerking for Porter Stewart Monroe E. Price 253

Of Cert Petitions and LBJ: Clerking for Justice Abe Fortas Todd C. Peppers Chad Oldfather Bridget Tainer-Parkins 271

In the Chief's Chambers: Life as a Law Clerk for Warren Earl Burger Rebecca Hurley 287

Justice Stevens and His Clerks Nancy S. Marder 300

Clerking for Mr. Right Craig M. Bradley 314

Clerking for FWOTSC: Recollections of a Former O'Connor Clerk Julia C. Ambrose 327

Justice Souter and His Law Clerks Kermit Roosevelt III 336

A Family Tradition: Clerking at the U.S. Supreme Court Todd C. Peppers 342

From Clerk to Justice, From Justice to Clerk: Judicial Influence in Supreme Court Chambers Laura Krugman Ray 384

Notes on Contributors 403

Index 409

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