Of Courtiers and Kings

Supreme Court justices have long relied on law clerks to help process the work of the Court. Yet few outside the Court are privy to the behind-the-scenes bonds that form between justices and their clerks.

In Of Courtiers and Kings, Todd C. Peppers and Clare Cushman offer an intimate new look at the personal and professional relationships of law clerks with their justices. Going beyond the book’s widely acclaimed predecessor, I n Chambers, the vignettes collected here range from reflections on how serving as clerks at the Supreme Court impacted the careers of such justices as Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan, William Rehnquist, John G. Roberts Jr., and John Paul Stevens to personal recollections written by parents and children who have both served as Supreme Court clerks. While individual essays often focus on a single justice and his or her corps of clerks―including how that justice selected and utilized the clerks―taken as a whole the volume provides a macro-level view of the evolution of the role of the Supreme Court law clerk. Drawing on a rich repository of such anecdotes, insights, and experience, the volume relates in a clear and accessible style how the clerking function has changed over time and what it is like for law clerks to be witnesses to history.

Offering a rare glimpse into a normally unseen world, Of Courtiers and Kings reveals the Court’s increasing reliance on law clerks and raises important questions about the selection, utilization, and influence of law clerks.

Praise for In Chambers:

"An excellent book.... It's interesting for many different reasons, not the least of which as a reminder of how much of a bastion of elitism the Court has always been."―Atlantic Monthly

"The best parts of the book are the behind-the-scenes descriptions of life at the court.... [A]n impressive and comprehensive book."―Associated Press

Todd C. Peppers, Henry H. and Trudye H. Fowler Professor of Public Affairs at Roanoke College and a Visiting Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, is the author of Courtiers of the Marble Palace: The Rise and Influence of the Supreme Court Law Clerk and the coeditor, with Artemus Ward, of In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices (Virginia). Clare Cushman, Director of Publications at the Supreme Court Historical Society, is the author of Courtwatchers: Eyewitness Accounts in Supreme Court History and the editor of Supreme Court Decisions and Women’s Rights and The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-2012.