Hannah Smith | |
|---|---|
 Smith in 2017 | |
| Personal details | |
| Spouse | John Smith |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Princeton University (AB) Brigham Young University (JD) |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Hannah Clayson Smith is an American attorney with the firm Schaerr Jaffe. [1] [2] Smith is a senior fellow at the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University (BYU) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Religious Freedom Institute. [3]
Smith was raised in California and is the sister of Jane Clayson Johnson. [4] She earned a bachelor's degree from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University before attending BYU's J. Reuben Clark Law School. During law school, Smith was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as Executive Editor of the BYU Law Review . [2] Smith also served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Switzerland Geneva Mission, which covered parts of Switzerland and France. [4] [ better source needed ]
Following law school, Smith clerked for then-Judge Samuel Alito of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. She next clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court from 2003 to 2004, and then returned in 2006 to clerk at the Supreme Court a second time for Justice Alito following his appointment as an associate justice. [2] [5] She practiced law[ when? ] at Williams & Connolly and Sidley Austin in Washington D.C. [2]
Smith's legal practice focuses on appellate litigation. She was part of the legal team for landmark U.S. Supreme Court victories such as Zubik v. Burwell , Burwell v. Hobby Lobby , Holt v. Hobbs , and Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC . [6] [2]
In 2017, Smith testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her testimony reviewed his jurisprudence relating to religious liberty cases, including two of Becket's clients: the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby. [7]
In 2014, Smith was awarded the BYU Alumni Achievement Award. [8] In 2016, Smith was awarded the J. Reuben Clark Law Society's Women-in-Law Leadership Award. [9] In 2018, she was awarded the James Madison Award from the Center for Constitutional Studies.
Smith served on the Brigham Young University Law School's Board of Advisers as well as on the Deseret News editorial advisory board. [2] Smith was on the inaugural panel of Stanford Law School's religious freedom clinic. [10]
Smith is married to John Smith, an attorney who also clerked for Alito, and they have four children. [2] [4]
Sandra Day O'Connor was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, O'Connor was the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. A moderate conservative, she was considered a swing vote. Before O'Connor's tenure on the Court, she was an Arizona state judge and earlier an elected legislator in Arizona, serving as the first female majority leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Upon her nomination to the Court, O'Connor was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate.
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The J. Reuben Clark Law School is the law school of Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1973, the school is named after J. Reuben Clark, a former U.S. Ambassador, Undersecretary of State, and general authority of the institution's sponsoring organization, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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The J. Reuben Clark Law Society is an organization of lawyers and law school students consisting of over 65 professional and 125 student chapters throughout the world. Named in honor of J. Reuben Clark, a former United States Ambassador to Mexico and Under Secretary of State, the society's membership is primarily composed of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, although there is no requirement that those in the society be church members. Alumni and students of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University (BYU) are de facto members of the society.
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