Yale Or Harvard: The Making Of A Supreme Court Justice

The present members of the United States Supreme Court have something in common with Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court choice of President Donald Trump. Gorsuch and four other members of the country's highest court are Harvard Law School graduates. The other three members are Yale Law School graduates, while one studied at Harvard but a graduate of the law school at Columbia University.

If the Judiciary Committee of the Senate will confirm Gorsuch, this would make all justices of the Supreme Court Harvard or Yale students. This is notable considering there are over 200 law schools in the United States. The backgrounds of Supreme Court Justices are considered very important since they will occupy the positions for life.

The 49-year old Gorsuch can look forward to many years in the Supreme Court as he can even serve beyond the presidency of Trump, according to Learning English. George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said while Gorsuch is an intellectual leader, it is not right to exclude other law schools that churn out equally intelligent students.

The almost lifetime term of the justices makes their education and backgrounds very significant. Both Harvard and Yale have received very high ratings and occupy the top two positions among U.S. law schools.

This brings to mind the question of whether or not a diploma from Harvard or Yale is a prerequisite for a job at the Supreme Court, as per NPR. Four American presidents have studied in the two institutions as well, which could explain the apparent bias for those educated in either Harvard or Yale.

University of California's Berkeley School of Law Professor Dan Farber said it is weird that while Standford ranks seventh among all law schools, their students seemed to have been shut out from the highest court of the land. The confirmation of Gorsuch would bring the numbers game back to the Supreme Court to the six is to three ratio, according to Vox. This would put much favor to Harvard but Yale with three justices is not far behind.