Robert Heron Bork was an American legal scholar who served as solicitor general of the United States from 1973 until 1977. A professor by training, he was acting United States Attorney General and a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit from 1982 to 1988. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Senate rejected his nomination after a contentious and highly publicized confirmation hearing.
The Harvard Law Review is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the Harvard Law Review's 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 journals in the category "Law". It also ranks first in other ranking systems of law reviews. It is published monthly from November through June, with the November issue dedicated to covering the previous year's term of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Merrick Brian Garland is an American lawyer and jurist who served as the 86th United States attorney general from 2021 to 2025. He previously served as a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 2021. In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the U.S. Senate refused to hold a vote to confirm him.
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, doing business as Arnold & Porter, is an American multinational law firm. It is a white-shoe firm and among the largest law firms in the world, both by revenue and by number of lawyers.
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, commonly known as Davis Polk, is an American multinational law firm headquartered in New York City with offices in Washington, D.C., Menlo Park, London, Madrid, Brussels, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, and São Paulo. The firm maintains an all-equity partnership, with profits per partner of over $7 million.
James Skelly Wright was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Steven Michael Colloton is the chief United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He has served as judge of the court since 2003 and became chief judge in March 2024.
Martin "Marty" S. Lederman is the former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), appointed by President Obama in January 2009. He previously served as an Attorney Advisor in OLC from 1994 to 2002. He has concentrated on questions involving freedom of speech, the Religion Clauses, congressional power and federalism, equal protection, separation of powers, copyright, and food and drug law. He helped draft the June 2010 memorandum authorizing the assassination of U.S. citizen and Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.
Jerry Edwin Smith is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
President Bill Clinton made two appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States, both during his first term.
Victoria Frances Nourse is the Ralph V. Whitworth Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and the executive director of its Center on Congressional Studies. She currently serves as vice chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights as an appointee of President Joe Biden. She previously served as general counsel to the vice president under the Obama Administration. A nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, her nomination was returned to the president on December 17, 2011, after the Senate adjourned for more than 30 days.
Alison Julie Nathan is an American lawyer who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit since 2022. She served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 2011 to 2022. She previously served as associate White House counsel for President Barack Obama.
Pamela Ann Harris is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Prior to joining the federal bench, she was an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and executive director of its Supreme Court Institute.
With the advice and consent of the United States Senate, the president of the United States appoints the members of the Supreme Court of the United States, which is the highest court of the federal judiciary of the United States. Following his victory in the 2020 presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden took office as president on January 20, 2021. During the 2020 Democratic primary campaign, Biden pledged to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court, although unlike his opponent, Donald Trump, Biden did not release a specific list of potential nominees during the 2020 general election campaign.
Tali Farimah Farhadian Weinstein is an American attorney, professor, and politician. She is a former federal and state prosecutor and was a candidate in the 2021 Manhattan District Attorney race. In November 2024, President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate her as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, but did not send her nomination to the United States Senate before he left office.
Candace Rae Jackson-Akiwumi is an American attorney who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since July 2021. She was previously a staff attorney at the federal defender program in the Northern District of Illinois from 2010 to 2020 and a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder in Washington, D.C., from 2020 to 2021.
Holly Aiyisha Thomas is an American attorney serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She previously served as a judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court from 2018 to 2022.
Margaret Vivian Goodlander is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative from New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district since 2025. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
