Which judges are the feeder judges? Forum

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 01, 2013 1:13 pm

Can someone update based on the new ATL post.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 01, 2013 2:47 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Can someone update based on the new ATL post.
New post doesn't have a lot of new info. It's also heav(ier) on conservative '14 hires than liberal ones.

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Post by Myself » Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:48 pm

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msridiculous447

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by msridiculous447 » Mon Jul 01, 2013 3:52 pm

ajax adonis wrote:I'm just wondering for my own information. How does a judge become a feeder? How do you become "well respected" before the Justices' eyes? I mean, it seems like Kavanaugh is a relatively recent appointee, but he's respected enough for Justices to take his clerks? How come someone like Kavanaugh would be sending more clerks than Kozinski?

Can someone give me some specific reasons for why certain judges are respected?


For example, I would think Easterbrook is pretty darn respected, but why isn't he higher up on the list? Or what about Noonan? Both of those guys seem like extremely smart, judges who issue excellently written opinions usually.

Not trying to be argumentative, just really wondering for my own knowledge.
I'd guess that Kavanaugh is more likely to send clerks to SCOTUS than say, Kozinski, because he sits on the same circuit that Scalia and Roberts did.

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Post by Myself » Mon Jul 01, 2013 4:42 pm

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 01, 2013 4:49 pm

ajax adonis wrote:
msridiculous447 wrote:
ajax adonis wrote:I'm just wondering for my own information. How does a judge become a feeder? How do you become "well respected" before the Justices' eyes? I mean, it seems like Kavanaugh is a relatively recent appointee, but he's respected enough for Justices to take his clerks? How come someone like Kavanaugh would be sending more clerks than Kozinski?

Can someone give me some specific reasons for why certain judges are respected?


For example, I would think Easterbrook is pretty darn respected, but why isn't he higher up on the list? Or what about Noonan? Both of those guys seem like extremely smart, judges who issue excellently written opinions usually.

Not trying to be argumentative, just really wondering for my own knowledge.
I'd guess that Kavanaugh is more likely to send clerks to SCOTUS than say, Kozinski, because he sits on the same circuit that Scalia and Roberts did.
Is that really the only reason?? Why are there non-feeder DC Circuit judges then?
No, it isn't the only reason. I'm just saying that justices who previously sat on the DC Circuit are likely to have a preference for clerks coming from the DC Circuit. They probably have better relationships with current judges on the DC Circuit.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 26, 2014 1:01 pm

Updated Feeder report as of 7/8/14 from ATL

To make the numbers more current I have totaled for 2011-15 as reported by ATL; while they may not be entirely accurate (my notes were sloppy), they are pretty indicative of who is still "hot":

It appears that Kavanaugh, Wilkinson and Kozinski lead the "right" and Garland, Tatel and Katzmann the middle/left

Anyone who would like to check ATL postings, feel free to correct

Kavanaugh 17
Garland 14
Wilkinson 12
Tatel 12
Katzmann 10
Kozinski 9
Griffith 8
Reinhardt 7
Fletcher 6
Randolph 5
O'Scannlain 5
Boudin 5
E Jones 4
Gorsuch 4
Posner 4
Sutton 3
Sentelle 3

Hot Dist Ct feeders

Rakoff 7
Boasberg 4

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sundance95

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by sundance95 » Fri Sep 26, 2014 1:39 pm

Counting Rakoff and Katzmann separately doesn't make a lot of sense since they basically co-hire

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 26, 2014 4:56 pm

By my count Sutton has 8 from 2011-15, 7 if you don't include a 2015 O'Connor clerk.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Citizen Genet » Fri Sep 26, 2014 5:05 pm


It appears that Kavanaugh, Wilkinson and Kozinski lead the "right" and Garland, Tatel and Katzmann the middle/left.
They don't really lead the middle left; they lead the left.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 26, 2014 8:12 pm

I'm pretty sure Gleeson (EDNY) has had at least three go up within that time period.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Sep 27, 2014 12:56 pm

Srinivasan has three (two Kagans, one Roberts) for OT14/OT15, with plenty of OT15 hires still unreported. That didn't take very long.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Sep 28, 2014 4:51 pm

Kethledge has three as well (one Scalia, two Roberts).

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Sep 28, 2014 9:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote:By my count Sutton has 8 from 2011-15, 7 if you don't include a 2015 O'Connor clerk.
Yeah, he has 3 at the Court for the 2014 term alone...

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Sep 29, 2014 1:35 pm

OP updated the chart- thanks for double checking my numbers


Kavanaugh 17
Garland 14
Wilkinson 12
Tatel 12
Katzmann 10
Kozinski 9
Griffith 8
Sutton 8
Reinhardt 7
Fletcher 6
Randolph 5
O'Scannlain 5
Boudin 5
E Jones 4
Gorsuch 4
Posner 4
Kethledge 3
Srinivisan 3
Gleeson 3
Sentelle 3

Hot Dist Ct feeders (yes rakoff/katzmann is usally a pairing- I was just tryoing to show which DC judges were placing at SCOTUS, even if not "paired". I welcome other cadidates for consideration

Rakoff 7
Boasberg 4

Anyone want to debate whether Garland, Tatel and Katzmann are "left" or "center left"?

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Citizen Genet » Tue Sep 30, 2014 10:39 am

Anonymous User wrote: Anyone want to debate whether Garland, Tatel and Katzmann are "left" or "center left"?

I may have misunderstood the original comment which said that they "lead the middle/left." I took that to mean they were the lead feeders to the "middle/left" part of SCOTUS, insinuating that Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, or Kagan was somehow in the middle of the Court. It seems that you're saying Garland, Tatel or Katzmann could be considered a centrist judges - not that they feed to the "center" part of the Court.

That is probably true, particularly for Katzmann. I'll note that one of the few articles that has tried to quantify how far right or left a particular judge puts Sutton to the left of Katzmann. Now, no one thinks that Katzmann is actually more conservative than Sutton, but I think it goes to show that Sutton is much more moderate than most people think he is. Just because he's on the short list of conservative nominees, doesn't mean he's far right.

Also, Kosinski is about as consistently libertarian as they come, so it would be fair to call him an extreme centrist.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Sep 30, 2014 5:52 pm

It seems that you're saying Garland, Tatel or Katzmann could be considered a centrist judges - not that they feed to the "center" part of the Court.
yes that's what I meant.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:26 am

Anonymous User wrote:
ajax adonis wrote:
msridiculous447 wrote:
ajax adonis wrote:I'm just wondering for my own information. How does a judge become a feeder? How do you become "well respected" before the Justices' eyes? I mean, it seems like Kavanaugh is a relatively recent appointee, but he's respected enough for Justices to take his clerks? How come someone like Kavanaugh would be sending more clerks than Kozinski?

Can someone give me some specific reasons for why certain judges are respected?


For example, I would think Easterbrook is pretty darn respected, but why isn't he higher up on the list? Or what about Noonan? Both of those guys seem like extremely smart, judges who issue excellently written opinions usually.

Not trying to be argumentative, just really wondering for my own knowledge.
I'd guess that Kavanaugh is more likely to send clerks to SCOTUS than say, Kozinski, because he sits on the same circuit that Scalia and Roberts did.
Is that really the only reason?? Why are there non-feeder DC Circuit judges then?
No, it isn't the only reason. I'm just saying that justices who previously sat on the DC Circuit are likely to have a preference for clerks coming from the DC Circuit. They probably have better relationships with current judges on the DC Circuit.
I think the D.C. Circuit has an edge for three reasons: 1) Chicken or egg. DC Circuit is the most competitive. Even clerking for a total non-feeder (e.g. Henderson) is highly desirable. So you have a very dense collection of top notch clerks. 2) Justices who came from there often have close friendships with the Judges they left behind. 3) Proximity. Even those who didn't overlap on the D.C. Circuit (E.g. Roberts and Kavanaugh) will cross paths on a regular basis. In fact, the D.C. legal market is small enough--particularly among the elites who are on the list for D.C. Circuit or SCOTUS--that they have probably been crossing paths for decades and have numerous mutual friends.

ETA: Back to the question about Kavanaugh vs. Easterbrook or other very respected judges who don't feed as much, a lot of it has to do with the judge's hiring criteria. Many of the top feeders hire almost solely on the basis of how likely that person is to get hired by a justice. Some take that approach with the single caveat of limiting their hiring to those who share their general ideology. Some of the lesser feeders are on the same level as the top feeders in terms of respect and ability etc. but choose to hire more based on fit, or life story, or some other characteristic even if it won't maximize their chances of clerking for SCOTUS.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Feb 14, 2015 12:01 am

Because Friday nights are for procrastinating, I decided to procrastinate in classic law student fashion by compiling an updated feeder list for the 5 most recently hired terms (OT 2011 through OT 2015, except the few OT 2015 hires still missing).

Kavanaugh (D.C.) 20
Garland (D.C.) 14 + 3 Bristows
Wilkinson (4th) 13 + 3 Bristows
Sutton (6th) 11 + Bristow
Katzmann (2d) 11
Tatel (D.C.) 10 + 3 Bristows
Kozinski (9th) 9 + Bristow
Griffith (D.C.) 8
Gorsuch (10th) 7 + Bristow
Reinhardt (9th) 6
Fletcher (9th) 5 + 2 Bristows
W. Pryor (11th) 5
Randolph (D.C.) 5
E. Jones (5th) 4 + Bristow
Boudin (1st) 4
Calabresi (2d) 4
O'Scannlain (9th) 4
Posner (7th) 4
Sentelle (D.C.) 4
Kethledge (6th) 3 + Bristow
J.R. Brown (D.C.) 3
Scirica (3d) 3
Livingston (2d) 2 + Bristow
Colloton (8th) 2
Ikuta (9th) 2
Srinivasan (D.C.) 2

While I didn't keep track of district court judges, I noticed Boasberg and Feinerman popped up quite a few times - in addition to Rakoff of course.

Comparing to OP's list, some thoughts: Garland, D. Ginsburg, and O'Scannlain lost the most ground. Kavanaugh and W. Pryor are gaining momentum. Newbies are Livingston, Ikuta, and Srinivasan.
Last edited by Anonymous User on Sat Feb 14, 2015 12:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Feb 14, 2015 12:21 am

You could add 2 Bristows for Fletcher.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Feb 14, 2015 12:22 am

Anonymous User wrote:You could add 2 Bristows for Fletcher.
Thanks, I edited the list. I must have gotten lazy with keeping track of the Bristows.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Feb 28, 2015 1:10 pm

Looks like Gorsuch is still hiring for 2016.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:28 pm

Kethledge is up to four announced publicly (most recent is with Kennedy) and has had two Bristows.

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by PHXSuns » Thu Jun 04, 2015 12:03 am

Any updates here to the list? or is there a more updated one elsewhere? the Sri number seems off

when do we start applying?

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Re: Which judges are the feeder judges?

Post by mbeaufort » Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:56 pm

Did anyone see this article today about feeder judges? One of my classmates wrote the paper the article is based on, which has lots of data on feeder judges.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... cotus.html

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm? ... id=2659622

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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