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58 DePaul L. Rev. 51 (2008-2009)
Law Clerk Influence on Supreme Court Decision Making: An Empirical Assessment

handle is hein.journals/deplr58 and id is 53 raw text is: LAW CLERK INFLUENCE ON SUPREME COURT DECISION MAKING: AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT Todd C. Peppers* and Christopher Zorn** INTRODUCTION In the past ten years, U.S. Supreme Court law clerks have achieved a visibility unmatched in Supreme Court history. A former Blackmun clerk wrote a tell-all tale of law clerk mischief at the Supreme Court,' a series of articles in USA Today addressing the lack of law clerk di- versity sparked protests and the grilling of Supreme Court Justices by congressional subcommittees,2 former clerks offered insight into the turmoil gripping the Court during the 2000 presidential election,3 and two new television series focused on the behind-the-scenes machina- tions of Supreme Court clerks.4 The decade of the law clerk culminated in the publication of two major academic works on Su- preme Court law clerks.5 Both books sought to provide a thorough * Associate Professor of Political Science, Roanoke College; Lecturer in Law, Washington and Lee School of Law. ** Professor of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University. A previous version of this paper was presented at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 31 to September 3, 2006, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our thanks to Greg Caldeira, Scott Comparato, William Henderson, and seminar participants at the Indiana University Law School, the University of Georgia, and the Ohio State University for helpful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are our own. 1. See EDWARD LAZARUS, CLOSED CHAMBERS: THE FIRST EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT OF THE Epic STRUGGLES INSIDE THE SUPREME COURT (1998). 2. See Tony Mauro, Corps of Clerks Lacking in Diversity, USA TODAY, Mar. 13, 1998, at 12A. 3. See David Margolick et al., The Path to Florida, VANITY FAIR, Oct. 2004, at 310-20. 4. The television shows-both of which were quickly cancelled-were First Monday, star- ring James Garner and Joe Mantegna, and The Court, starring Sally Field, Pat Hingle, and Diahann Carroll. 5. See TODD C. PEPPERS, COURTIERS OF THE MARBLE PALACE: THE RISE AND INFLUENCE OF THE SUPREME COURT LAW CLERK (2006); ARTEMUS WARD & DAVID L. WEIDEN, SOR- CERER'S APPRENTICES: 100 YEARS OF LAW CLERKS AT THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT (2006). The two books immediately spawned discussion in the media, law reviews, and scholarly journals. See, e.g., Emily Bazelon & Dahlia Lithwick, Endangered Species: In Defense of the Supreme Court Law Clerks, SLATE, June 13, 2006, available at http://www.slate.com/id/2143628 (book review); Jeff Bleich, Book Review, CAL. LAWYER, Jan. 2007, at 34: Deborah Challenger, Book Review, 16 LAW & POL. BOOK REV. 693 (2006); Paul M. Collins. Jr.. Book Review, 29 JUST. SYs. J. 117 (2008); David J. Garrow, Acolytes in Arms, 9 GREEN BAG 2D 411 (2006) (book review); Harvey Gee, Book Review, 100 W. VA. L. REV. 781 (2008): Charles Lane, The Varying

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