Feeder Judge Ratings OT 2016 - 2020 (and a bit beyond) Forum

[Anonymous User]

Apparently one of Justice Sotomayor’s clerks had to leave the clerkship early for personal reasons and was replaced by a new clerk midway.

[Anonymous User]

Random other thoughts, caveat that this is incomplete data:

1. Do any of our Fed Soc friends know what's up with Mitchell?

2. Relative to the historical norm, a very strong class for Stanford and a very weak one for Yale so far

3. Fletcher, Garland, Katzmann, Rakoff, Tatel, and O'Scannlain shut out, which feels like a watershed. Plus only one for Wilkinson. At the time current SCOTUS clerks were applying, all of these judges were seen as mega-feeders.

4. Only two liberal circuit judges besides Srinivasan fed more than one--Pillard and Millett. And both of Millett's feeds were seemingly conservative clerks. And many of the liberals once seen as likely future feeders aren't really feeding much, if at all nowadays--Barron, Friedland, Liu, Lynch, Nathan, Watford. In particular, Watford has only fed once to a non-retired justice, and Nathan has never fed to a non-retired justice, though who knows what'll happen once she's elevated. Feels weird to say "Steve Colloton is a bigger feeder than Paul Watford" but given the ideological makeup of the Court, it may soon be true!

5. What happened to Brinkema?

[Anonymous User]

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Random other thoughts, caveat that this is incomplete data:

1. Do any of our Fed Soc friends know what's up with Mitchell?

2. Relative to the historical norm, a very strong class for Stanford and a very weak one for Yale so far

3. Fletcher, Garland, Katzmann, Rakoff, Tatel, and O'Scannlain shut out, which feels like a watershed. Plus only one for Wilkinson. At the time current SCOTUS clerks were applying, all of these judges were seen as mega-feeders.

4. Only two liberal circuit judges besides Srinivasan fed more than one--Pillard and Millett. And both of Millett's feeds were seemingly conservative clerks. And many of the liberals once seen as likely future feeders aren't really feeding much, if at all nowadays--Barron, Friedland, Liu, Lynch, Nathan, Watford. In particular, Watford has only fed once to a non-retired justice, and Nathan has never fed to a non-retired justice, though who knows what'll happen once she's elevated. Feels weird to say "Steve Colloton is a bigger feeder than Paul Watford" but given the ideological makeup of the Court, it may soon be true!

5. What happened to Brinkema?

It also seems like Kagan has started hiring HLS grads before they’ve even started clerking for lower court judges.

[Anonymous User]

Random other thoughts, caveat that this is incomplete data:

1. Do any of our Fed Soc friends know what's up with Mitchell?

2. Relative to the historical norm, a very strong class for Stanford and a very weak one for Yale so far

3. Fletcher, Garland, Katzmann, Rakoff, Tatel, and O'Scannlain shut out, which feels like a watershed. Plus only one for Wilkinson. At the time current SCOTUS clerks were applying, all of these judges were seen as mega-feeders.

4. Only two liberal circuit judges besides Srinivasan fed more than one--Pillard and Millett. And both of Millett's feeds were seemingly conservative clerks. And many of the liberals once seen as likely future feeders aren't really feeding much, if at all nowadays--Barron, Friedland, Liu, Lynch, Nathan, Watford. In particular, Watford has only fed once to a non-retired justice, and Nathan has never fed to a non-retired justice, though who knows what'll happen once she's elevated. Feels weird to say "Steve Colloton is a bigger feeder than Paul Watford" but given the ideological makeup of the Court, it may soon be true!

5. What happened to Brinkema?

1. No inside information, but maybe Pryor convinced Thomas it would be useful if his future clerks had some state court experience with his friend.

2. Not shocking if the Justices have paid any attention to the constant temper tantrums and embarrassing behavior displayed by Yale Law students recently.

3. It’s too early to count out O’Scannlain until Alito actually hires his clerks for 2022.

4. No idea what’s up with Millett, unless spots for DC circuit clerkships are that intense amongst the FedSoc group and Millett just doesn’t care about her clerk’s ideologies.

[Anonymous User]

Random other thoughts, caveat that this is incomplete data:

1. Do any of our Fed Soc friends know what's up with Mitchell?

2. Relative to the historical norm, a very strong class for Stanford and a very weak one for Yale so far

3. Fletcher, Garland, Katzmann, Rakoff, Tatel, and O'Scannlain shut out, which feels like a watershed. Plus only one for Wilkinson. At the time current SCOTUS clerks were applying, all of these judges were seen as mega-feeders.

4. Only two liberal circuit judges besides Srinivasan fed more than one--Pillard and Millett. And both of Millett's feeds were seemingly conservative clerks. And many of the liberals once seen as likely future feeders aren't really feeding much, if at all nowadays--Barron, Friedland, Liu, Lynch, Nathan, Watford. In particular, Watford has only fed once to a non-retired justice, and Nathan has never fed to a non-retired justice, though who knows what'll happen once she's elevated. Feels weird to say "Steve Colloton is a bigger feeder than Paul Watford" but given the ideological makeup of the Court, it may soon be true!

5. What happened to Brinkema?

5. Brinkema was never a concerted feeder; she just sometimes attracted SCOTUS-level clerks.

[Anonymous User]

A few random observations:

1. Sotomayor hired a cum laude graduate from HLS, which seems unusual.
2. Roberts hired the number #1 at HLS, which is unsurprising, but he didn't serve on HLR, either because he wasn't interested or because the LR process is a joke. Still interesting.
3. A seemingly high number of "connection" based hires.
4. Roberts hired someone who was originally going to clerk for Barrett before she was confirmed, a little surprised she didn't hire him herself.
5. Kagan beginning to hire at a Kavanaugh-esque rate.
6. There is an increasing number of triple clerks, although I can't tell whether that is future clerks being told to cool their heels at a connected judge for a year due to the timeline, or whether people are that willing to put off BigLaw for a shot at the brass ring.
7. Wilkinson and O'Scannlain have already been mentioned, but I am surprised by the relatively low number of Sutton clerks as well.

Ranked by school:

YLS: 7
HLS: 13
Stanford: 6
Chicago: 4
Columbia: 0
NYU: 1
UVA: 2

Others: Penn, George Mason, Texas, Alabama, Georgetown, Cornell

[Anonymous User]

Boasberg has been really killing it these past few years with his feeds. Wonder if in 5ish years he'll go from a semi-feeder to straight feeder.

I'd consider him as feeder-ish as you can be for a district court judge already. who would be ahead of him in the district court pecking order?

OP from last time. At this point I would consider him top district court judge feeder of all them. I guess what I meant is that at his recent rate he may start rivaling some of circuit feeders. It feels like these past few years he has been consistent at applying clerks for Justices of all ideologies.

[Anonymous User]

Sotomayor hiring a cum laude HLS grad isn’t that surprising, she’s always been *relatively* flexible on the traditional credentials. The UT grad graduated without honors (not criticizing, she has a great story and has a super impressive resume). And unlike some justices, she doesn’t seem to just be flexible when it comes to her friends’ kids.

[Anonymous User]

And unlike some justices, she doesn’t seem to just be flexible when it comes to her friends’ kids.

I'm not a liberal by any means but have a ton of respect for Sotomayor because of this. Also Thomas for giving folks from "lesser" (in others' view) schools a chance. He even hired an Alabama grad, albeit that person was Valedictorian.

[Anonymous User]

Responding to two different but related posts from this page:

- Justices have in the recent and not-so-recent past hired HLS grades who were "only" cum laude. That is not unusual (or surprising), historically speaking.

- Kagan has in the recent and not-so-recent past hired HLS grades who hadn't yet even done a single clerkship yet (at the time of their Kagan offer). That is also historically not unusual (at least going as far back as 10-ish years, given the data/familiarity I have).

[Anonymous User]

Heavy RT. Also, OP, I hope you keep doing these because for various methodological reasons I think yours is superior to Lat's (whose intern is likely spread thinner doing the "circuit rankings" and demographics, whereas your including / excluding retirees is much more valuable).

[Anonymous User]

Are there any actual feeders on the Seventh?

[Anonymous User]

Are there any actual feeders on the Seventh?

Sykes. Then Easterbrook and Wood are probably among the very top non-feeder clerkships in the country, but rely heavily (exclusively in Big Frank’s case) on referrals from UChicago to hire.

[Anonymous User]

UPenn(22) -> Tjoflat (11th) -> Matey (3rd) —> Alito (2024-25)

First feed for Matey

[Anonymous User]

UPenn(22) -> Tjoflat (11th) -> Matey (3rd) —> Alito (2024-25)

First feed for Matey

Fascinating story. Good for her.

[Reese1]

UPenn(22) -> Tjoflat (11th) -> Matey (3rd) —> Alito (2024-25)

First feed for Matey

Fascinating story. Good for her.

[Anonymous User]

UPenn(22) -> Tjoflat (11th) -> Matey (3rd) —> Alito (2024-25)

First feed for Matey

Fascinating story. Good for her.

Notably also Scalia's goddaughter

[Anonymous User]

When was Willett's other Kavanaugh feed besides the Kovner one? When was Larsen's Kavanaugh feed? Not sure if there's double-counting or if I'm being stupid

[Anonymous User]

When was Willett's other Kavanaugh feed besides the Kovner one? When was Larsen's Kavanaugh feed? Not sure if there's double-counting or if I'm being stupid

Larsen fed to Kavanaugh in OT 2019. Willett looks like a typo.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks to the last reply. Also, what was the third C. Breyer -> Breyer feed besides the McKeown and Friedland / Cuellar ones?

[Anonymous User]

UPenn(22) -> Tjoflat (11th) -> Matey (3rd) —> Alito (2024-25)

First feed for Matey

Fascinating story. Good for her.

Notably also Scalia's goddaughter

Where'd you see that?

[Anonymous User]

UPenn(22) -> Tjoflat (11th) -> Matey (3rd) —> Alito (2024-25)

First feed for Matey

Fascinating story. Good for her.

Notably also Scalia's goddaughter

Where'd you see that?

I'm not sure if it's been publicly reported, but it's well known at Penn.

[Anonymous User]

Apparently one of Justice Sotomayor’s clerks had to leave the clerkship early for personal reasons and was replaced by a new clerk midway.

Very interesting. Pure conjecture, but perhaps this is someone who could have had access to the leaked opinion but obviously wasn't worried about getting fired for leaking it?

[Anonymous User]

Apparently one of Justice Sotomayor’s clerks had to leave the clerkship early for personal reasons and was replaced by a new clerk midway.

Very interesting. Pure conjecture, but perhaps this is someone who could have had access to the leaked opinion but obviously wasn't worried about getting fired for leaking it?

I checked. The person left before the draft was circulated. Not the leaker.

[Anonymous User]

And with a new drop, a nation looks toward the skies in hope of new Imgurs

(Seriously, so grateful for you OP)