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Article
Justice Hugo Black and His Law Clerks: Match-Making and Match Point
Journal of Supreme Court History
  • Todd C. Peppers, Washington and Lee University School of Law
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2011
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.”

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