How to Become a Supreme Court Judge
Becoming a Supreme Court Judge is not a process that occurs overnight. Rather, you must establish a law career for yourself, review tons of legal cases and eventually be selected specifically as the President's choice to be the newest addition to the Supreme Court. As you can see, you will have your work cut out for you. Hopefully, these steps can get you started with a bare minimum of headaches.
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Things You'll Need
- To Practice in the Field of Law
- Political Awareness
- A Presidential Nomination
- Senate Confirmation
Instructions
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Get Appointed As a Law Clerk. A fine way to get an insider's view of the Supreme Court is by receiving an appointment as a law clerk for a Supreme Court justice. As a law clerk, your major responsibilities will be to review legal cases and to brief the justice who you serve about the relative importance of these cases. Not just anyone is eligible be chosen as a law clerk. These clerks are usually hand-selected on the basis of their performance in law school, so you must be a top performer in your class. If you are unable to begin your law career as a clerk for the Supreme Court, perhaps you will be able to secure a similar position at another level in the judicial hierarchy. This experience will benefit you by letting you get to know the court system from the inside-out rather from the outside-in.
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Practice in the Field of Law. If you want to become a Supreme Court Justice without having a law career beforehand, then you will be setting a precedent. It has never happened before. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, and being able to demonstrate expertise in dealing with legal cases is not a skill that comes without training. Of course, if you are interested in serving as a Supreme Court Justice, you are probably already passionately interested in the study of law. However, be aware that to distinguish yourself in the field of law, you will need to apply yourself early on at an academic level.
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Gain Support From Others Who Share Enthusiasm About Your Key Objectives. The politics of law are often overlooked by aspiring lawyers. If you want to be appointed as a Supreme Court justice, you are dreaming the impossible dream, but that doesn't mean that others won't want to share your dream with you. Networking early on in your law career can provide you with lifelong contacts so long as you work hard to match your dreams with the effort required to secure a job at the Supreme Court. Many groups and individuals are willing to champion an aspiring candidate who is likely to interpret legal cases in a way that they themselves also agree with. The influence of these supporters may even reach all the way to the White House, where you can someday be suggested by cabinet members to be the President's choice.
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Secure a Presidential Nomination. This is nothing you can do on your own, since the President's choice is his own as to who he will nominate. However, certain things you can do to improve your chances of reaching the Supreme Court is not to brand yourself as a loose cannon, avoid scandal in your law career, support the President's policy objectives as much as possible and to develop a consistent approach to how you handle legal cases. A Supreme Court justice doesn't need to be perfect, only not immensely flawed.
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Receive the U.S. Senate's Confirmation. As with being picked as the President's choice, confirmation in front of the U.S. Senate is nothing that you can rig. You law career will proceed you, and you must realize early on that every decision you make when handling legal cases will later be subject to scrutiny by Senate members. Since each of these senators represents voters' interests, this confirmation process can become very political in nature. This may seem like a lot of work for a potential Supreme Court Justice to go through, but our system is protected by checks-and-balances and the Supreme Court is not an isolated institution. Rather, it functions alongside of the Executive & Legislative branches of our government.
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Tips & Warnings
If you want to nurture your interest in the U.S. Supreme Court, yet are not prepared to take on the challenge of law school, you should take time to review actual cases argued by the Supreme Court. These cases are available in their entirety on the internet, along with very helpful commentaries, as long as you are willing to search.
Should you serve as a Supreme Court Justice, you will receive a lifetime appointment. This can be a blessing or a curse in disguise, depending if you have a variety of dreams you would like to realize in life. For example, you cannot be a Supreme Court Justice and be the next Crocodile Hunter at the same time. If you are attracted to the power you will be able to wield as a Supreme Court Justice, be sure that you will truly be satisfied in this position before you make it your career goal.
