How The Court Works | Law Clerks
Senior law clerk Bennett Boskey drove
Chief Justice Harlan Fiske Stone and
second law clerk Roger Nelson to Court
on the first day of October Term 1941 ~
[Courtesy of Bennett Boskey]
As drafting begins, the law clerks intensify their research of pertinent material. They work very hard, Chief Justice Rehnquist once remarked, and after an arduous 12-month stint "are glad to go onto something else in the profession." They come to the Court as top graduates of law schools, alert to current research and thinking there. Appointment as a clerk carries great honor.
Chief Justice Rehnquist’s first service at the Court was as clerk to the late JusticeRobert H. Jackson. Justice Stevens was clerk to the late Justice Rutledge, and retired Justice White to the late Justice Vinson. Then each Justice had two clerks, a secretary, and a messenger; today each Justice is entitled to four clerks, two secretaries and a messenger, with the Chief Justice authorized an additional secretary.
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