Justices Tap Former Clerks as Appointed Counsel, Boosting Their Careers
Two former U.S. Supreme Court law clerks will be arguing sentencing cases before the high court on Tuesday.
Both lawyers agreed to take the cases for free, but that doesn’t mean their appointments are without benefit, Legal Times reports. This “little-known and rarely available pathway” helped jump-start the Supreme Court careers of several former high court clerks, including appellate litigator Maureen Mahoney and John G. Roberts Jr., now the chief justice, the legal publication says.
The two appointed counsel, Jay Jorgensen and Peter “Bo” Rutledge, will be arguing before the high court for the first time. They were tapped under a procedure in which the court appoints pro bono counsel because a respondent has decided it disagrees with a lower court decision, even though the ruling was favorable.
Rutledge, a former law clerk for Clarence Thomas, is now a law professor at Catholic University. He is arguing that a judge does not need to notify the government or the defendant before imposing a sentence that deviates from federal guidelines.
Jorgensen, a former clerk for Samuel A. Alito Jr., is a partner with Sidley Austin. He is urging the court to allow federal appeals judges to increase a defendant’s criminal sentence on their own accord.
“I’ve been talking to Bo,” Jorgensen told the Legal Times. “We’re both honored and both scared.”
