List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Chief Justice)



Law clerks have assisted the justices of the United States Supreme Court 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. The chief justice is allowed to have five law clerks per Term, but no chief justice has ever done so regularly. 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, and draft orders and opinions. 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 chief justice, a position alluded to in the U.S. Constitution and established on September 24, 1789 by the 1st Congress through the Judiciary Act of 1789. The current Chief Justice of the United States is John Roberts.


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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.
 * "Law Clerks of Chief Justice Earl Warren," Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (2015). Retrieved August 15, 2016.
 * 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. ISBN 978-0814794203, ISBN 0814794203.