Feeder judge

Feeder judges are those judges in the American federal judiciary whose law clerks are often selected to become clerks for the Supreme Court of the United States. Feeder judges are able to place comparatively many of their clerks on the Supreme Court for a variety of reasons, including personal or ideological relationships with particular justices, prestigious and respected positions in the judiciary, and reputations for attracting and training high quality clerks.Clerkships for the Supreme Court are highly prized and the most difficult to secure in the American clerking landscape—they have been called the "brass ring of law clerk fame" and the "ultimate achievement." Feeder clerkships are, consequently, similarly prized as stepping stones to a potential clerkship with the Supreme Court.

Justices of the early Supreme Court hired clerks straight from law school based on personal recommendations. But over time, applicants to the Supreme Court began to more often have prior clerkship experience, and between 1962 and 2002, 98 percent of Supreme Court clerks had clerked before. As the court began to draw more frequently from prior clerks, particular lower-court judges naturally had more consistent success placing their clerks with the Supreme Court. This phenomenon probably began with Judge Learned Hand, and had been established by the time of Chief Justice Warren Burger in 1969, although data before his tenure is unreliable. Although the phenomenon had thus existed for quite some time, the first published uses of the phrase was in a 1990 article by Judge Patricia Wald and 1991 article by Judge Alex Kozinski, themselves both feeder judges.

Statistical analysis comparing the feeders of the 1976-1985 and 1995-2004 terms suggests the reliance on feeders has remained consistent since the Burger era, or at most has seen modest growth. However, the feeder system has become more concentrated as more judges are feeding to specific justices than in the past.

During the 1969–1985 tenure of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, 85 percent of Supreme Court clerks had previously served on a court of appeals and 12 percent on a district court. For the 1986–2002 William Rehnquist court, these numbers had risen to 92 percent and dropped to 7 percent, respectively. Although most feeder judges are therefore court of appeals judges, some district court judges are feeders. Judges Louis H. Pollak and Pierre N. Leval were historically feeders while on the district court, and district Judge Jed S. Rakoff is essentially a feeder since he essentially co-hires clerks with appellate feeder Judge Robert Katzmann.

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