Two members of the Notre Dame Law 91Ƶ community are serving as clerks at the U.S. Supreme Court for 2021-22 term, which began last week.
Notre Dame Law Professor is clerking for Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch. Notre Dame Law 91Ƶ graduate is clerking for Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“Professor Barclay’s service to the nation’s highest court will benefit her students and her scholarship immensely,” said G. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law 91Ƶ. “Her experience as a U.S. Supreme Court clerk will be reflected in her teaching and her scholarship for the rest of her career.”
Barclay joined the Law 91Ƶ’s faculty in 2020 and has served as director of the new . Her research focuses on the role democratic institutions play in protecting minority rights, particularly at the intersection of free speech and religious exercise. She clerked previously for Judge N. Randy Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Barclay is one of 14 current faculty members at Notre Dame Law 91Ƶ who have clerked at the Supreme Court. That equals one-third of the Law 91Ƶ’s tenure-track faculty members.
Baltes is the third Notre Dame Law 91Ƶ graduate in three years to clerk for a Supreme Court justice. Laura Wolk ’16 J.D. and Audrey Beck ’17 J.D. clerked during 2019-20 term.
Baltes clerked previously for Judge Raymond Gruender of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and for then-Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Barrett, a Notre Dame Law 91Ƶ alumna and longtime faculty member, was appointed as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 2020.
The 37 lawyers clerking at the Supreme Court this term are alumni of just 12 law schools.
Notre Dame is the only law school that has a faculty member and a graduate on this year’s roster of clerks.
Originally published by at on .12.