Semi-Feeder or Major Circuit Forum

[Anonymous User]

(Also, does Stras have a marketing person on this forum or something? He's a fantastic judge, but I've seen a ton of posts about how he's some uber-feeder, which is inconsistent with what I know about who he chooses to interview and how FedSoc-affiliated students with SCOTUS-tier credentials seem to view him.)

Yeah, he's probably great to clerk for. He's also one of at least a dozen, probably more, recent nominees who clerked on the Supreme Court and is trying to establish himself or herself. (And that doesn't include the established conservative feeders or semi-feeders, or any of the liberals.) Don't think he's any more or less prominent-than say, Oldham or Willet.

Not dumping on the guy at all, just thought the discussion here was getting a bit weird.

One interesting thing is the lowkey competition between Trump COA appointees who themselves clerked for SCOTUS to become feeders. Especially since Gorsuch and Kavanaugh being elevated left a big hole to fill. Stras, Willet, Ho, Bibas, Barrett, Rao, even some D Ct people like Kovner, etc. Will be interesting to see who emerges as a Kavanaugh/Luttig/Garland-level feeder, or if they reach an equilibrium in which no one judge is doing that much feeding, but they each do a bit. And some of the older guard conservative judges, like Ikuta, who got a bit boxed out from feeding may play a bigger role.

Based on some knowledge of people who have clerkships lined up with both, I'd say Katsas and Oldham are ahead (in Katsas' case, miles ahead) of most people you named, tbh.

Katsas is a monster feeder, but his numbers are somewhat inflated because he inherited a few bound for SCOTUS clerks when he joined the bench.