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Hi guys,

Do you know if there is a citizenship requirement for clerkship with DC Court of Appeals? (Not dc circuit)

I understand that international students can work as a clerk at “state” supreme courts, but I noticed that D.C is technically a federal district...

Non-U.S citizens cannot work for the federal judiciary because of the federal appropriations laws, but Dc Court of appeals is not a federal court..

If you guys know any international jds who clerked at DC Court of Appeals, please let me know.

Thank you!

I went through my PMs to try and get you the name of someone who is doing this I talked to. . .


And realized that was you, sorry.

You almost certainly need to be a citizen to work for the D.C. Courts. Unlike the rest of the D.C. government, the local D.C. Courts are themselves effectively federal agencies and are funded directly by congressional appropriation each year. See, e.g., Title IV of https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-con ... 5/text?r=1. Those same annual appropriations laws contain the general prohibition on using appropriated funds to pay non-citizens. See, e.g., Title VII, Sec. 704, of that same law. So unless there's a specific carve-out for D.C. somewhere else (or I'm misreading the interplay of those two provisions--entirely possible), I think you're out of luck.