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US Supreme Court Law Clerks as Information Sources

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Christopher D. Kromphardt
Christopher D. Kromphardt*
Affiliation:
University of Alabama
*
Contact the author at [email protected].
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Abstract

Justices use information from attorneys, amici, and the solicitor general to learn about cases. One source that has gone with little empirical scrutiny is their law clerks. I validate a measure of clerk preferences and analyze the role of information conveyed by clerks in shaping the justices’ votes on the merits. I report asymmetric support for the theory that clerks get what they want when they craft credible signals: the results support the conclusion that conservative clerks can influence vote direction. These findings bolster understanding of the role of information in hierarchical relationships and shine light on clerks’ roles.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , Fall 2015 , pp. 277 - 304
Copyright
© 2015 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Paul Collins and Todd Peppers for their data and Steve Borrelli, Amanda Bryan, Rich Fording, Doug Gibler, Robert Howard, David Klein, Emily Ritter, Doug Rice, Joe Smith, Amy Steigerwalt, Patrick Wohlfarth, Chris Zorn, and participants at the “Junior Assistants or Junior Justices: The Hiring, Utilization, and Influence of Law Clerks” symposium at Marquette University Law School for their feedback.

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