Shirt Tales: Clerking for Byron White

Abstract

In honor of Byron White's 25th anniversary as a Supreme Court Justice, his then-current and former clerks presented him with a T-shirt. Emblazoned on the shirt were short, usually one-line, statements expressing the clerks’ thoughts about the Justice, his career, and their experiences as clerks. The melange of brief messages conveys much about the relationship between Justice White and those who were privileged to work as his clerks. It also provides meaningful insights into the clerkship experience, as well as into the nature of the man who defined the experience by the force of his personality.

Keywords: Byron R. White (1917-2002), U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice (1962-1993), judicial biography, law clerks, tributes, gratitude