Clerks of the Court

Clerks of the Court The clerk of the Court, one of the Supreme Court's five statutory officers, is responsible for the day‐to‐day administrative management of the Court's caseload. Since the office was established by the Court's first formal rule, on 2 February 1790, only nineteen individuals have served as clerk of the Court.

The first clerk, John Tucker, was selected during the Court's first session and given responsibility for the Court's library, courtroom, and employees, and for collecting justices' salaries and finding local lodgings for the justices. Many of the clerk's early duties were later taken over by the court reporter, the marshal of the Court, and, more recently, by the administrative assistant to the chief justice.

Four of the following nineteen individuals to serve as clerk of the Court held that position for more than twenty‐five years: John Tucker (1790–1791); Samuel Bayard (1791–1800); Elias B. Caldwell (1800–1825); William Griffith (1826–1827); William T. Carroll (1827–1863); D. W. Middleton (1863–1880); J. H. McKenney (1880–1913); James D. Maher (1913–1921); William R. Stansbury (1921–1927); C. Elmore Cropley (1927–1952); Harold B. Willey (1952–1956); John T. Fey (1956–1958); James R. Browning (1958–1961); John F. Davis (1961–1970); E. Robert Seaver (1970–1972); Michael Rodak, Jr. (1972–1981); Alexander Stevas (1981–1985); Joseph F. Spaniol, Jr. (1985–1991); and William K. Suter (1991–).

Over the two centuries since the first clerk was selected, the clerk's duties have greatly expanded to include maintaining the Court's dockets and calendars; receiving, recording, and distributing to the justices all motions, petitions, statements and briefs filed in all cases; collecting all filing fees; preparing and maintaining the order list and journal (which contain all the Court's formal judgments and mandates); preparing the Court's formal judgments and mandates; handling the preparation of all in forma pauperis briefs; obtaining certified case records from lower federal courts; supervising the Supreme Court bar (including the admission and disbarment of attorneys who wish to practice before the Court); and providing procedural advice to any counsel or litigants who need assistance in complying with the Court's rules.

The clerk often works closely with other Court personnel to carry out the Court's business. The clerk participates in monthly meetings with the other officers of the Supreme Court to discuss current Court business under the direction of the administrative assistant. Along with the marshal, the clerk participates in the Court's formal opening ceremonies before oral arguments begin. After the justices have made their decisions and the Court's written opinions are printed, a final copy goes to the clerk for safekeeping and to the reporter of decisions. When case decisions are announced by the Court, the clerk's office notifies the information officer, who then distributes copies of each new opinion to the press.

The clerk and his assistant, the chief deputy clerk, currently have a twenty‐five member staff to help handle the ever‐increasing paperwork; prepare the Court's calendars; and check, record, and sort all the incoming cases for review. Of the over 5,100 annual cases the clerk's office is currently processing, only 150 to 180 are accepted for oral arguments.

In spite of the computer system installed in 1975 to help monitor the clerk's records, every motion and thousands of briefs must still be entered and processed by hand. The Office of the Clerk operates a word‐processing and data‐management system, which is programmed and maintained by the relatively new Data System Office. The justices' chambers have a separate computer network for opinion‐writing tasks, one that produces a camera‐ready document (see Computer Room and Computers).

The clerk's office was entirely self‐supporting during its first hundred years. The clerk's salary and those of his assistants, as well as all operating expenses, were paid out of the filing fees the office collected. From 1800 to 1883, the clerks were paid considerably more than the justices. In 1883, Congress required the Court to be strictly accountable for its funds. Filing fees, docket fees, and administrative fees are collected by the clerk's office and go into the U.S. General Treasury Fund. The salaries of all Court personnel, as well as the Court's expenses, are now appropriated by Congress. In 1988, the salary of the clerk was set at $75,000.

See also Clerk, Office of the; Staff of the Court, Nonjudicial.

Martha Swann