Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Meet The October Term 2026 SCOTUS Clerks

Plus Justice Kagan’s latest hires, Justice Jackson’s letter to clerkship applicants, and a demographic analysis of the OT 2026 clerks.

Aug 07, 2026

∙ Paid

A clerk walking the halls of One First Street (photo by David Lat).

Welcome to Original Jurisdiction, the latest legal publication by me, David Lat. You can learn more about Original Jurisdiction by reading its About page, and you can email me at davidlat@substack.com. This is a reader-supported publication; you can subscribe by clicking here.

Happy Friday. And it’s a happy Friday here at Original Jurisdiction, since I have a new installment of everyone’s favorite feature: a fresh Supreme Court clerk hiring roundup.

This post has three parts:

my traditional demographic analysis of the Supreme Court law clerks for October Term 2026, now that their identities have been confirmed by the Court’s Public Information Office;
a letter from the chambers of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson outlining the process for selecting her next class of clerks, which I publish in these pages around this time every year (note the fast-approaching deadline of September 4); and
my lists of law clerks hired for OT 2026, OT 2027, and beyond.

We’ll start with the demographics:

1. Gender. The OT 2026 class contains 38 clerks—four for each active justice, plus one each for retired Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer.1 Of the 38 clerks, 25 are men and 13 are women—66% and 34%, respectively.

The OT 2026 class is less balanced in gender than the OT 2025 crop of clerks (53% men and 47% women). In fact, the new class is the least balanced since OT 2022—which also consisted of 25 men and 13 women, for the same 66% to 34% split.

In historical terms, such a gender ratio is not unheard of. During the first dozen years of the Roberts Court (2005-2017), only a third of SCOTUS clerks were women.

But it’s worth noting that in 2016, women became a majority of law school students, and today, women represent around 56% of U.S. law students. So to have men constituting two-thirds of SCOTUS clerks, in an age when women account for well over 50% of American law students, is notable.

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2. Feeder schools. Fourteen different law schools sent graduates into OT 2026 clerkships at the Court. This is higher than in the preceding five Terms—12 for OT 2025, 11 for OT 2024, 13 for OT 2023, 10 for OT 2022, 12 for OT 2021—and it’s the highest figure since OT 2018 (which also featured 14 feeder schools). Speaking for myself, I think it’s a good thing to have more law schools in the mix.

Here’s the ranking of schools, with the number of clerks noted parenthetically:

Harvard: 11
Chicago: 5
Yale: 4
UVA: 4
Columbia: 3
NYU: 2
Penn: 2
Scalia: 1
Stanford: 1
Northwestern: 1
Duke: 1
BYU: 1
Notre Dame: 1
Howard: 1

So Harvard was #1 with 11 clerks, Chicago was #2 with five clerks, and Yale and UVA tied for #3, with four clerks. Last Term, I wondered whether Harvard’s falling outside the top three schools in the U.S. News rankings in recent years—#6 in 2026 and 2025, #4 in 2024, and #5 in 2023—might start hurting its ability to feed clerks to SCOTUS. At least based on the OT 2026 class, that’s not turning out to be the case.

Here are the top three schools for the past five Terms, OT 2022 through OT 2026 (listing four schools for OT 2026 because of a tie for third place):

Even though only five schools have made the top three in the past five Terms, there’s significant variation from year to year. Only two schools, Harvard and Yale, made the top three in all five Terms. Chicago was in the top three in OT 2026 and OT 2025—but came up empty in OT 2024, with zero clerks. Stanford made the top three in OT 2022 and OT 2023, and it was #4 in OT 2025, with five clerks—but in OT 2026, it almost got shut out, placing only one clerk at One First Street.

If you’re a prospective law student who dreams of clerking for SCOTUS, you might think, based on the raw numbers, that you should go to HLS or YLS (assuming you’re fortunate enough to get admitted). But as I’ve pointed out before, Harvard’s graduating J.D. class hovers at around 600, compared to approximately 200 for Chicago, Stanford, and Yale. So on a per-capita basis, Yale is the clear #1 school for minting SCOTUS clerks, and Harvard is probably comparable to Chicago and Stanford. (UVA has historically been the #5 law school in producing SCOTUS clerks—but note that its J.D. class size is around 300, so on a per-capita basis, it’s not quite at the level of Yale, Chicago, or Stanford.)

3. Feeder judges. The 38 clerks for OT 2026 completed 75 prior clerkships with 47 different judges—a higher number of feeder judges than OT 2025 (39 judges), while roughly in line with OT 2024 (47 judges), OT 2023 (48 judges), OT 2022 (43 judges), and OT 2021 (46 judges). Again, as with law schools, I favor having a larger and more diverse group of feeder judges (and I like seeing new feeders emerge—e.g., Judge Patrick Bumatay of the Ninth Circuit).

Here are the 20 feeder judges with more than one clerk at the Court for OT 2026:

Katsas: 6
Oldham: 3
Stras: 3
Thapar: 3
Kovner (E.D.N.Y.): 3
Bibas: 2
Bumatay: 2
Friedland: 2
Grant: 2
Heytens: 2
Lohier: 2
Menashi: 2
Pillard: 2
W. Pryor: 2
Rao: 2
Sutton: 2
Wilkinson: 2
Boasberg (D.D.C.): 2
Chhabria (N.D. Cal.): 2
Furman (S.D.N.Y.): 2

Judge Gregory Katsas (D.C. Cir.) was the clear #1, with six clerks at One First Street right now2—twice as many as each of the four judges tied for #2: Judges Andrew Oldham (5th Cir.), David Stras (8th Cir.), Amul Thapar (6th Cir.), and Rachel Kovner (E.D.N.Y.).

Here are the top three feeder judges for the past five Terms, OT 2022 through OT 2026 (listing more than three in cases of ties):

Given how Republican appointees outnumber Democratic appointees at SCOTUS, 6-3, and given the reality that Republican-appointed justices tend to hire clerks from Republican-appointed feeder judges (and vice versa), it shouldn’t be surprising to see how Republican appointees have dominated the ranks of top feeder judges over the past five Terms. In the past five Terms, only three Democratic appointees—Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan (D.C. Cir.), Judge Raymond Lohier (2d Cir.), and Chief Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg (D.D.C.)—have cracked the top three.

I recently had an interesting exchange on X / Twitter about why Republican shortlisters are often feeder judges, while Democratic shortlisters are often not. Feeder judges tend to be some of the most well-regarded lower-court judges, so you’d expect them to be well-represented among SCOTUS shortlisters—and on the Republican side, they are (as long as they’re sufficiently young and conservative).

But when Democratic presidents pick SCOTUS nominees, they take into account factors other than judicial reputation, with diversity as a key consideration. As a result, Democratic appointees who are well-regarded feeder judges generally don’t get SCOTUS buzz if they don’t promote demographic diversity—e.g., Judges Toby Heytens (4th Cir.) and Jesse Furman (S.D.N.Y.).

So that’s it for the demographic analysis. Let’s turn to our next topic: Justice Jackson’s letter to clerkship applicants, explaining how she’ll be selecting her OT 2027 clerks and what applicants should include in their submissions.

Justice Jackson has a distinctive application process, which I’ve described—and praised—in the past. In general, it’s more regularized, transparent, and meritocratic—or at least less connections-based—than the processes of certain other justices. Note this language from her letter (boldface type in the original): “Neither applicants nor their references, recommenders, or other advocates should contact Justice Jackson or her current or former staff regarding a pending or prospective application.”

Here’s the letter. If you’re thinking of applying to KBJ, don’t delay: her deadline of September 4 is only a month away.

LETTER FROM THE CHAMBERS OF JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON TO CLERKSHIP APPLICANTS - OCTOBER TERM 2027 LAW CLERK HIRING

Dear applicant:

Thank you for your interest in applying for a clerkship in Justice Jackson’s chambers. Justice Jackson seeks clerks with excellent legal research and writing skills, proficiency managing complex and competing workflows, and the ability to overcome challenges. Justice Jackson is also interested in applicants who demonstrate a commitment to pursuing equal justice under law. Finally, she values clerks who bring to chambers significant personal and professional experiences relevant to the work of the Supreme Court, including pre- or post-clerkship legal practice experience. At minimum, applicants must have completed an appellate clerkship at the state or federal level by January 1, 2027 to be considered.

Justice Jackson will begin considering applicants for OT 2027 in September of 2026. All materials must be emailed to JusticeJackson_Clerkships@supremecourt.gov on or before September 4, 2026. Applicants who previously submitted materials will be reconsidered if they resubmit a complete and updated application. The subject line of the email and the name of the attached PDF file of materials should be in the following format: Last Name, First Name OT 2027 Clerkship Application. Materials must be combined into a single PDF file in the order listed below:

· Cover letter of no more than 500 words. Successful applicants will use the cover letter to explain their interest in clerking for Justice Jackson and to highlight, in narrative form, the skills and characteristics identified in the first paragraph above. The most effective cover letters will provide different insight into an applicant’s experience from other application materials.

· Resume of no more than two pages.

· Official law school transcript.

· Official transcripts from undergraduate and any other graduate institutions.

· List of professional references. The list should include at least four, but no more than six, professional references. Please briefly explain how long and in what context you have worked with each reference. Please also indicate at least two, but no more than four, of the listed references who will provide a letter of recommendation.

o All recommendation letters must be emailed by the recommender to JusticeJackson_Clerkships@supremecourt.gov on or before September 4, 2026. The subject line of the email and the name of the attached PDF letter should be in the following format: Applicant Last Name, Applicant First Name OT 2027 Letter of Recommendation, Recommender Last Name, Recommender First Name.

o The most effective recommendation letters will speak directly to the skills and characteristics identified in the first paragraph above, on the basis of the recommender’s first-hand experience. In particular, recommenders should highlight the applicant’s ability to orally communicate complex concepts.

Justice Jackson may later ask some applicants to provide existing writing samples or to draft an original sample in response to a prompt.

No information will be considered outside of the formal application process. Neither applicants nor their references, recommenders, or other advocates should contact Justice Jackson or her current or former staff regarding a pending or prospective application. Failure to follow this instruction may disqualify an application from further consideration.

Justice Jackson thanks you for your interest in clerking for her and looks forward to reviewing your application materials in due course.

Best regards,

The Chambers of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

Finally, for paid subscribers to Original Jurisdiction, here are the OT 2026 and OT 2027 clerk rosters, as well as the handful of post-OT 2027 hires that have already been made (not yet numerous enough to justify breaking out separate lists). There are a number of new hires since my last roundup, including six clerks hired by Justice Elena Kagan last month (four clerks for OT 2027 and two for OT 2028).

Of the three Democratic appointees, Justice Kagan hires the earliest, and she’s also willing to hire for future Terms once she’s filled the upcoming Term. In the last cycle, Justice Kagan completed her OT 2026 hiring before the end of July 2025—whereas Justice Jackson hired her OT 2026 clerks in December 2025, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor filled her OT 2026 class in January 2026. (The hiring timetables of the conservative justices aren’t as clear, with a number of them hiring on more of a rolling basis—and often quite far in advance.)

Some quick things to note:

You might see slight changes to the clerk names listed below compared to my hiring roundup from July—e.g., “Thomas A. Koenig” (current) versus “Thomas Koenig” (previous). This is because I’m now using the “official” names provided by the Public Information Office (PIO), which often include middle initials that I didn’t have before.
If you see a name in quotation marks—e.g., Ting “Juliana” W. Chang—what appears in quotation marks comes from me, not the PIO. Thanks to my sources, I sometimes know nicknames or other names that clerks go by, which can deviate from the official names from the PIO. So I’ve inserted those nicknames after each clerk’s given name, otherwise leaving the official name intact—e.g., “Ting W. Chang” (official name) versus “Ting ‘Juliana’ W. Chang” (official name with nickname added). This is useful info because if you were to try and research some of these clerks online, you’d sometimes get better results if you know the names they actually go by. For example, on LinkedIn, Ting Chang goes by Juliana Chang and Andrew Gu goes by Andy Gu.
If you see a name in parentheses, that’s a former name, often a name the clerk used prior to marriage. E.g., “Chandler (Cole) Brinkmann.”
Please note the key at the bottom:
- ? = the clerkship is believed to be filled, but the identity of the clerk is not known to me
- ??? = the clerkship may or may not be filled
When a clerk’s name is hyperlinked, the link goes to an article specifically about that person getting hired as a SCOTUS clerk (as opposed to a firm bio page, LinkedIn profile, etc.).
Please note that only the OT 2026 hires have been confirmed by the Supreme Court’s Public Information Office. Hires for all other Terms have not been confirmed by the PIO (but they have been confirmed by the standards that I employ when deciding that a hire is reportable).

Please reach out with any hires that I have not yet reported (or any corrections, of course). You can contact me at davidlat@substack.com or 917-397-2751 (texts only—no calls). Make sure to include the words “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your email or text message, perhaps as the subject line of your email or first words of your text. Thanks!

Earlier:

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