The Law Clerks' Recommendations and Chief Justice Vinson's Vote on Certiorari

Abstract

There is continuing speculation about the impact of the law clerks' recommendations on the case selection process of the U. S. Supreme Court. Until recently, the unavailability of consistent information on both the clerks' recommendations and the justices' case selection votes precluded any empirical analysis. This study uses information gathered from the justices' private papers to compare the recommendations of Chief Justice Vinson's clerks with the certiorari votes cast by the justices during the Vinson era. The analyses of these recommendations and votes show that Vinson's clerks were trying to anticipate the chief justice's votes but that they displayed a liberal orientation during the first part of Vinson's tenure. During the second part of the Vinson era, when the Court had a more conservative membership, there is no indication of a liberal orientation in the clerks' recommendations.