Justice Hugo Black and His Law Clerks: Match-Making and Match Point

Authors

Todd C. Peppers, Washington and Lee University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Supreme Court History

Publication Date

2011

Abstract

Like other Justices on the Supreme Court, Justice Black hired law clerks to assist with the work of the Court. Each year, his law clerks would assist in reviewing cert. petitions, doing legal research, and editing opinion drafts. These job duties, however, were only one dimension of the Black clerkship. As the Justice himself once remarked to a law-clerk applicant, “I don’t pick my law clerks for what they can do for me, I pick my law clerks for what I can do for them.”

Recommended Citation

Todd C. Peppers, Justice Hugo Black and His Law Clerks: Match-Making and Match Point, 36 J. Sup. Ct. Hist. 48 (2011).