Courtiers of the Marble Palace: The Rise and Influence of the Supreme Court Law Clerk

There are several books on Justices Law Clerks. 'Sorcerers' Apprentices' is an historical account of the 100 years of Law Clerks in the US Supreme Court. 'In Chambers' and 'Of Courtiers and Kings' are stories about individual justices written by former law clerks, and edited by Todd Peppers as the common editor. This book, 'Courtiers of the Marbled Palace', published in 2006, is a book written by Peppers himself, and it provides a brief history of the law clerk and the work he does - including that of a stenographer in early days of the clerkship history.Pepper describes how different justices employ their clerks in different ways. And in the very early history before even the justices have their own chambers, their clerks work in the justices' homes, and sometimes even home-sit for them when they were on holiday.The anecdotal accounts are from reliable sources even when not from the clerks themselves; for instance, some corroboration and stories come from their secretaries - like Alger Hiss of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. The stories provide insight into the way the judges and their clerks work, and how they deal with ethical issues and conduct; especially when communicating with outsiders. Although he did not clerk for a US Supreme Court justice, Peppers clerked for a US District Court judge.If you just want to read one the three Pepper books, this is the one to read. Chances are, you would follow up with the other two, published in 2012 and 2015 respectively.

Professor Peppers has done an admirable job of trying to research the history of the rise of the supreme court law clerk. Although clearly limited by the unavailability of some sources, the book is well-researched and well done.Professor Peppers traces the history of the clerkship through three phases he calls the "stenographer, the "legal assistant" and the "law firm associate." His writing clearly backs up these labels and lends credence to his conclusions. The book tries to answer the question as to whether the clerks wield an inappropriate amount of power in the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. I think the author approached this topic with an open mind and concludes that the clerks do not have an inapproriate amount of power -- the tradeoff is that as the court's workload has increased and more clerks have been hired, the distance between the justices and the clerks has widened; this in turn has diminished the power of a clerk to influence a justice even as the clerks have had an increasingly greater role in the work of the court. He also explores the self-balancing mechanisms in the system.Although Professor Peppers presents a strong case, as a lawyer involved in the writing of amici briefs in a number of cases during the cert phase, I am not totally persuaded. I think many of the sources go out of their way to emphasis the point that clerks do not really influence justices ('you protest too much'). In particular, I question the propriety of the 'cert pool' even more as a result of the book.If the book has any fault, it seemed to jump around a bit as it followed a historical path, but given the nature of the subject, I am not sure there is a better one. It is clear that Professor Peppers has done a great service by exposing this clerk system to the sunshine of publicity. At the very least, he has sparked a debate that has lain dormant for fifty years.I very much enjoyed reading this book and heartily recommend it to other lawyers and legal scholars.

This is one of two current books discussing the role of Supreme Court law clerks, the other being "Sorcerers' Apprentices" by Ward and Weiden. This book takes a somewhat different approach from the Ward volume, in that it focuses historically on what clerks have done in their positions and how the role of the law clerk has been defined during different periods of the Court's history. Unlike Ward, Professor Peppers does not seek to assess in detail how contemporary clerks function in the cert. pool (which is not even explained until page 191), how clerks serve as communication conduits and coalition builders between chambers, or how they draft bench memos. Rather, his concern is to see how the role itself has changed over time: i.e., when did clerks begin to draft cert. memos, when did they first begin to participate in drafting opinions (in my opinion, an undue amount of attention is paid in both volumes to this issue), how were they selected by the Justices and what criteria were employed? The author has done a heroic job of research, since he covers the entire period of Court history, supplemented by an important range of over 50 interviews with former clerks. His appendices are chock full of useful information. The two books together reinforce and strengthen each other, with the happy result that we have for the first time a really meaningful examination of the important role clerks play at the big court. An exceptionally well-done contribution.

Fantastic book. This book can be understood by both attorneys and non-attorneys alike. I was delighted that author Peppers had a list of all the law clerks who worked for the Supreme Court Justices, and explained in detail how the clerkship evolved over the years. Highly recommended.

Practiced law for thirty years. Always was curious about the inner workings the SCOTUS. Considerable effort obvious in the research. Would order again.