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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?

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 wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 13, 2023 10:30 am

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

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 13, 2023 11:17 am

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.

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

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 17, 2023 3:15 pm

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 wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 18, 2023 2:57 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 17, 2023 3:15 pm

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 wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 18, 2023 2:35 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 18, 2023 2:57 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 17, 2023 3:15 pm

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.

Anybody hear anything yet?

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

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 04, 2023 3:46 pm

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

Anybody hear anything yet?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 19, 2023 3:39 pm

Anybody hear anything yet?

Someone from my school received an offer

Lat has posted 2024 Bristow Fellows, “[his] large and loyal network of sources gave [him] the Bristow info[.]”

Anybody have a large and loyal network like Lat?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 14, 2024 1:39 pm

Lat has posted 2024 Bristow Fellows, “[his] large and loyal network of sources gave [him] the Bristow info[.]”

Anybody have a large and loyal network like Lat?

Yale 2022 / Srinivasan / Boasberg (D.D.C.)

NYU 2021 / Howell (D.D.C.) / Pillard

Northwestern 2022 / Wilkinson / Nalbandian

Harvard 2022 / Sutton)

Howard 2022 / Nachmanoff (E.D. Va.) / Heytens

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 14, 2024 8:28 pm

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 14, 2024 1:39 pm

Lat has posted 2024 Bristow Fellows, “[his] large and loyal network of sources gave [him] the Bristow info[.]”

Anybody have a large and loyal network like Lat?

Yale 2022 / Srinivasan / Boasberg (D.D.C.)

NYU 2021 / Howell (D.D.C.) / Pillard

Northwestern 2022 / Wilkinson / Nalbandian

Harvard 2022 / Sutton)

Howard 2022 / Nachmanoff (E.D. Va.) / Heytens

Had clinic w the HLS person, genuinely brilliant and will not be shocked if they clerk scotus

A few questions about the SG office and Bristow:

1) How much turnover is there in the SG office when there's a new administration? I know the SG and principal SG usually leave, but do the assistant SGs leave?

2) For progressives, would you view someone as less 'progressive' if you saw they did Bristow in a R administration? I know places like the ACLU are very purist when it comes to credentials, so wondering if they would ding an applicant who did Bristow in a R admin.

Any thoughts on how selective the Bristow cycle will be this year? Do we think they'll only hire MAGA types?

has anyone heard of people getting Bristow interviews yet?