Sarah Sloan, a Columbia Law graduate who clerked for Justice Kagan (and Stevens), told her law school’s alumni magazine that she never thought she’d wind up at the Court until she was encouraged by professors and circuit judges who knew the path well. Her experience underscores how personal recommendations and faculty pipelines remain decisive, even in an…
Month: September 2025
The Ultimate Guide to Supreme Court Clerk Pipelines
In 1980, a young John Roberts began a clerkship with Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Former colleagues recalled him as “meticulous” and “brilliantly efficient,” and The New York Times later observed that Roberts “stood out for conservative rigor,” his memoranda concise, procedural, and laced with the dry wit that has since defined his judicial writing. That apprenticeship was more…
Empirical SCOTUS 