I've created three lists out of whole cloth. The first are the dozen most prestigious judges, by my own estimation and a variety of factors (exclusivity, productivity, feedability, etc.).
The second and third lists are a bit more unique. They focus on the most ten prestigious appointees of the last two presidents, Bush and Clinton. These are generally younger judges who show signs of the factors of the most prestigious judges (or are on that list), have been mentioned as possible McCain or Obama Supreme Court nominees, and are the most "coveted" if you seek a "younger" judge (although not all are necessarily relatively "young," but might be, e.g., one who can serve as a mentor longer, one who still has significant connections in their prior field of work, etc.).
These are wholly subjective, of course, but I welcome comment.
The Dozen Most Prestigious Federal Appellate Judges:
Boudin: Harvard, Harvard, Harvard, Yale
Calabresi: Cornell, Harvard, NYU, Yale
Easterbrook: Chicago, Harvard
Garland: Harvard, Harvard, Michigan, Yale
Kozinski: Chicago, Harvard, Northwestern, Tulane
O'Scannlain: Cornell, Virginia, Yale, Yale
Posner: Chicago, Harvard, NYU
Reinhardt: Columbia, Harvard, UCLA, Yale
Sentelle: Duke, Harvard, Harvard
Tatel: Duke, Georgetown, Stanford
Wilkinson: Northwestern, Stanford, Virginia, Virginia
S. Williams (Sr.): Berkeley, Chicago, Yale
Top Ten Bush Appointees:
Callahan: George Mason, Harvard
Colloton: GWU, Harvard, Stanford, Yale
Griffith: Georgetown, Yale, Yale, Yale
Gorsuch: Duke, Harvard, Harvard, Vanderbilt
Ikuta: Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, UCLA
Kavanaugh: Harvard, Harvard, Yale, Yale
McConnell: Harvard, Minnesota, Yale, Yale
Pryor: Alabama, Duke, Michigan
Sutton: Chicago, Harvard, Harvard
Sykes: Georgetown, Northwestern, Northwestern, Yale
Top Ten Clinton Appointees:
Cabranes: Boston College, Penn, Yale
Calabresi: Cornell, Harvard, NYU, Yale
W. Fletcher: Berkeley, Berkeley, Stanford, Yale
Garland: Harvard, Harvard, Michigan, Yale
Katzmann: Fordham, Georgetown, NYU, Yale
Motz: Harvard, Harvard, Maryland, Michigan
Sotomayor: NYU, Stanford, Virginia, Yale
Tatel: Duke, Georgetown, Stanford
Wardlaw: Harvard, Notre Dame, Stanford
Wood: Chicago, Harvard, Northwestern
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12 comments:
How you can list Rogers but not Tatel on the Clinton list is beyond me.
how could any list be perfect? the point is to send a message about who is being hired among "first choice judge." it works for that.
From what I can tell, the lists were made mutually exclusive, and Tatel is already on the "most prestigious" list. Certainly provocative lists, although I think some of the Bush II inclusions are borderline. Brown is insane, and I haven't heard any tales of her helping her clerks once they're gone. How about Ikuta? Bybee? (Although the whole memo thing likely took some of the wind out of his sails...)
Calabresi and Garland are both listed twice, so this isn't mutually exclusive.
Fair point. Which merely points up the obvious: these lists are entirely subjective. For more objective data, there are many feeder lists. As provacateurs, these lists appear to be reasonably successful.
So, consensus:
-For Clinton, replace Rogers with Tatel.
-For Bush, replace Brown with Ikuta.
I think that's pretty fair.
Agree completely with Tatel instead of Rogers. I think the Brown-Ikuta substitution is questionable. I agree that Brown, after a hot start, has faded in terms of prestige, and I'm not sold on Callahan, but I don't know if Ikuta's a consensus replacement. I would say that Raggi might be a good bet. Actually, Brown, Raggi, Ikuta, Bybee (despite the memo), Livingston (even though she's new), and Callahan are likely interchangeable -- there just hasn't been much time to determine Bush II appointees' prestige yet. Neither Brown nor Callahan has sent a clerk "upstairs" yet, while Ikuta was a SCOTUS clerk herself and Bybee has fed 1/2 of a clerk (with Randolph, who has a decent record, but not great in recent years -- hasn't fed one since OT 2002).
I would also replace Judge Wardlaw with Judge Berzon.
kavanaugh
I like your list of the Dozen Most Prestigious Federal Appellate Judges. Interesting article. Thanks for the post
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Griffith spoke at my school last year. I was really impressed -- seemed both personable and really smart. Don't know much about his feeding potential, but I know he was Senate Legal Counsel, so he's probably got a lot of good D.C. connections.
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