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mahatmakanejeeves

(60,780 posts)
Wed Feb 10, 2016, 01:30 PM Feb 2016

Two UVa Law School graduates to clerk for Supreme Court

NEWS

Two Law School graduates to clerk for Supreme Court

Austin Raynor, Nicole Frazer clerking for Justices Thomas, Scalia

by Elizabeth Parker | Feb 03 2016 | 02/03/16 11:27pm

Two recent Law School graduates will clerk for the 2016-17 term of the U.S. Supreme Court. ... Austin Raynor, a 2013 Law graduate and current associate at Sullivan and Cromwell in Washington, D.C., will clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas.

Nicole Frazer, a 2015 Law graduate, will clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia. Frazer is currently clerking for Judge Jeffrey Sutton on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Columbus, OH.
....

Raynor was involved outside of the classroom during his time in Charlottesville, particularly as an articles editor for the Virginia Law Review and member of the Federalist Society. During his first year of Law School, he was an opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily.
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Frazer was also involved in the University community and worked as a research assistant for Law Profs. A.E. Dick Howard and Saikrishna Prakash. She also authored an article under {Law Prof. Caleb Nelson} which was published in the Virginia Law Review in September 2015.



Courtesy University of Virginia

Nicole Frazer, a 2015 Law graduate, will clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia. Frazer is currently clerking for Judge Jeffrey Sutton on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Columbus, OH.



Courtesy University of Virginia

Austin Raynor, a 2013 Law graduate and current associate at Sullivan & Cromwell in Washington, D.C., will clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas.

Jeffrey Sutton

....
Sixth Circuit

Nomination

Sutton was first nominated by President George W. Bush on May 9, 2001 to a seat on the Sixth Circuit vacated by David A. Nelson. That nomination, made during the 107th United States Congress, never received a floor vote in the U.S. Senate. Sutton was not confirmed until almost two years later, on April 29, 2003, when the U.S. Senate of the 108th United States Congress voted 52 to 41 in favor of his confirmation to the Sixth Circuit. He received his commission on May 5, 2003. Sutton was the third judge nominated to the Sixth Circuit by Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate.

Tenure

Judge Sutton has been recognized as the intellectual engine behind a conservative movement of the jurisprudence of the Sixth Circuit as the author of many majority en banc opinions representing the Republican-appointed judges. In June 2011, Sutton became the first Republican nominated judge to rule in favor of the health care mandate in President Barack Obama's Health Care law.

In November 2014, Sutton authored the 2-1 opinion ruling upholding same-sex marriage bans in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee in the Sixth Circuit reversing six previous federal district court rulings. The ruling was the second federal court ruling and the only Federal Court of Appeals ruling to uphold same-sex marriage bans after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor in June 2013. This ran counter to rulings by the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 4th, 7th, 9th and 10th circuits, which then led the U.S. Supreme Court to grant writ of certiorari to review same-sex marriage bans when it previously declined to do so. In Obergefell v. Hodges the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Sixth Circuit.

Feeder Judge

Since joining the bench, Judge Sutton has been one of the most prolific feeder judges, sending a number of his law clerks to the Supreme Court.*


* Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Is October Term 2014 Filled Up? Plus A List Of Top Feeder Judges.
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