Bristow Question - Does Ideology Matter Forum

[Anonymous User]

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere. Does judicial philosophy/ideology/politics matter for the Bristow? I saw this past year that, of the five hires, 4 clerked for Democratic-appointed judges and only 1 clerked for Republican-appointed judges. Assuming that tracks with the clerks' personal philosophies, does being aligned with the politics/ideology of the incumbent administration help, or was this just a fluke? Is there data on this from previous years?

[Anonymous User]

This year was anomalous. It's typically a much more even split. One potential explanation is that as the Court has become much more conservative, the pool of people who didn't get SCOTUS (or aren't gunning for it) but have the credentials is going to be relatively more liberal. And those are the folks who get Bristow.
I'm not sure that the pool of competitive candidates is small enough for that to make an impact. But I really don't know.

[Anonymous User]

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere. Does judicial philosophy/ideology/politics matter for the Bristow? I saw this past year that, of the five hires, 4 clerked for Democratic-appointed judges and only 1 clerked for Republican-appointed judges. Assuming that tracks with the clerks' personal philosophies, does being aligned with the politics/ideology of the incumbent administration help, or was this just a fluke? Is there data on this from previous years?

It seemed not matter historically but seemingly has mattered a bit more for Trump/Biden DOJs

[bristowquestion]

This year was anomalous. It's typically a much more even split. One potential explanation is that as the Court has become much more conservative, the pool of people who didn't get SCOTUS (or aren't gunning for it) but have the credentials is going to be relatively more liberal. And those are the folks who get Bristow.
I'm not sure that the pool of competitive candidates is small enough for that to make an impact. But I really don't know.

Does anybody have any idea how many applications the Bristow receives per year? Obviously hard to say what % are "credible" per se, but the total number would be a good piece of info for ballparking purposes.

[Anonymous User]

I've heard that there are around 50 "credible" applications every year, with many non-credible applications on top of that.

[Anonymous User]

I've heard that there are around 50 "credible" applications every year, with many non-credible applications on top of that.

What is a “credible” application? Is anyone with a COA clerkship credible or do you mean SCOTUS-level credentials?

[Anonymous User]

I've heard that there are around 50 "credible" applications every year, with many non-credible applications on top of that.

What is a “credible” application? Is anyone with a COA clerkship credible or do you mean SCOTUS-level credentials?

It's not a perfect overlap but I think it at least requires SCOTUS level credentials and maybe more. There are 36 SCOTUS clerks per year, only 4 Bristow fellows, and a good number of Bristows eventually end up clerking SCOTUS.

[Anonymous User]

I've heard that there are around 50 "credible" applications every year, with many non-credible applications on top of that.

What is a “credible” application? Is anyone with a COA clerkship credible or do you mean SCOTUS-level credentials?

It's not a perfect overlap but I think it at least requires SCOTUS level credentials and maybe more. There are 36 SCOTUS clerks per year, only 4 Bristow fellows, and a good number of Bristows eventually end up clerking SCOTUS.

This is about right. In the last few years, there have been multiple people who got rejected for Bristow then ended up getting SCOTUS. And there hasn’t been a Bristow from outside the T14 in over 10 years (and this upcoming year, all are from HYSC). At the same time, most (if not all) Bristows apply to SCOTUS and most do not get it.

[Anonymous User]

.

[Anonymous User]

Anybody hear anything yet?

Would this year be down in applications because of the timing?

[Anonymous User]

Anybody hear anything yet?

Would this year be down in applications because of the timing?

Would be surprised if you hear anything before the November sitting

[Anonymous User]

Anybody hear anything yet?

[Anonymous User]

Anybody hear anything yet?

Someone from my school received an offer