66 lawyers have outsize influence on cert grants; are they part of an elite SCOTUS 'echo chamber'?
Out of 17,000 private lawyers who sought cert before the U.S. Supreme Court in a nine-year period, 66 stand out for their remarkable success rate.
The 66 lawyers were six times more likely to persuade the court to hear their cases, according to part one of a special report by Reuters. Thirty-one of the lawyers have clerked for justices, and some socialize with them, the story says. Sixty-three of the lawyers are white, and only eight are female. Fifty-one of the lawyers work for law firms that represent primarily corporate interests
“They are the elite of the elite,” Reuters says of the 66 lawyers. “Although they account for far less than 1 percent of lawyers who filed appeals to the Supreme Court, these attorneys were involved in 43 percent of the cases the high court chose to decide from 2004 through 2012.”
Eight lawyers account for nearly 20 percent of oral arguments before the justices in the last decade, according to part 3 of the Reuters report. All of the eight lawyers are male. All but one have worked in the U.S. Solicitor General’s office, or as a clerk for one of the justices, or both. They represent primarily corporations.
Some critics have suggested that the court works in an “echo chamber” where elite justices turn to elite lawyers who reinforce justices’ narrow views on the law.
But the justices appear to view effective representation from top Supreme Court litigators as better serving the ends of justice than having a more diverse group of lawyers arguing cases, Reuters concluded after interviewing eight justices. Only Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. declined an interview.
Justice Antonin Scalia told Reuters he has never voted to take a case only because a good lawyer was working on it. “But I have voted against what would be a marginally granted petition when it was not well presented, … where the petition demonstrates that the lawyer is not going to argue it well,” he said.
Justice Clarence Thomas also appreciates good appellate litigators. “The problem is when you have a tough case, you need really good lawyers to tee it up, to make the best arguments,” Thomas told Reuters. “That’s what you are looking for.”