Welcome to Supreme Court Brief. Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement provides a boon in clerk power to the sitting justices who inherit the clerks he had hired for the October 2018 term. Is the record number of law clerks in the new term good or bad? Two political scientists who have written about the court’s clerks offer some thoughts. Plus: A new website devoted to empirical research into the court’s oral arguments shines light on which justices are the most polite. Can you guess who they are? And we give an update on the court’s appointment of a new special master in the ongoing Florida v. Georgia water battle. Thanks for reading, and we welcome comments at [email protected] and [email protected].
Do Too Many Clerks Spoil the Court?
We recently reported that because of a quirk of timing, the Supreme Court may be fielding a record number of law clerks this upcoming term. The main reason: Justice Anthony Kennedy’s four clerks were on the payroll already before he formally retired on July 31.
