Supreme Court Internship Program

For more than 40 years, the Supreme Court Internship Program has provided students with a unique opportunity to build a substantial working knowledge of the role, functions, and history of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Program offers valuable exposure to work in a professional environment. Special enrichment opportunities include attending Court sessions as well as seminars organized by the Supreme Court Fellows.

Interns have responsibilities wholly distinct from the case work of the Supreme Court and do not work directly with the Justices or on cases pending before the Court. Some administrative support duty, such as answering phones and responding to inquiries from members of the public, is required.

The Supreme Court Internship Program is paid. Interns may pursue academic credit through their institutions of study and in consultation with the Supreme Court Internship Program.

Internship opportunities are available in the following offices:

Office of the Counselor to the Chief Justice

Congress created the statutory position of the Counselor to the Chief Justice in 1972 to aid in the increasingly complex planning and leadership duties of the Chief Justice. Within the Court, the Counselor serves as the Chief Justice’s chief operating officer. Outside of the Court, the Counselor supports the Chief Justice in his broad-ranging responsibility as head of the federal judiciary, including in his roles as presiding officer of the Judicial Conference of the United States, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Federal Judicial Center, and Chancellor of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. The Counselor is also the Chief Justice’s point of contact and representative for many varied entities having business with the Court, including judicial organizations, bar associations, foreign courts, and visiting dignitaries.

Interns in the Counselor’s Office conduct background research for briefings provided to guests of the Supreme Court; draft correspondence; collect, track, and summarize relevant news articles; and assist in other projects as assigned. The Counselor’s Office accepts only students available to intern on a full-time basis, five days per week.

The Counselor’s Office employs interns for the spring and fall semesters only.

Office of the Clerk

The Office of the Clerk was established on February 3, 1790, with the appointment of the first Clerk of Court. The primary role of the Clerk’s Office is to receive, docket, and retain control of all documents submitted for filing with the Court. The Office also prepares and issues orders, judgments and mandates of the Court; calendars cases for oral argument; notifies counsel and lower courts of actions taken by the Court; oversees the admission of attorneys to the Court’s Bar; develops and issues the Court’s rules; and provides procedural guidance to attorneys and litigants.

Interns in the Clerk’s Office provide assistance in responding to case-related inquiries from attorneys and litigants, both in-person and on the telephone. They also assist the full-time Clerk’s Office employees with a wide variety of tasks, including the processing and maintenance of Court filings and records.

Office of the Curator

The Curator’s Office was created by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger in 1973 to record and preserve the Court’s history. Its mission is to promote a greater public understanding and appreciation of the nation’s highest court. To this end, it collects the institution’s rich history, shares it with a diverse audience through a variety of programs, and preserves it for future generations.

Interns in the Curator’s Office develop a substantial working knowledge of the role and functions of the Supreme Court, its history, and the architecture of the building. Each intern is assigned to work with a staff member on curatorial projects, such as Visitor Programs, and Digital Assets Management. In addition to their individual projects, all interns gain valuable public speaking and interpersonal skills by conducting tours and Courtroom Lectures and staffing a visitor desk.

For more detailed descriptions of the curatorial internship positions, see the Curatorial Internship Information page. Cover letters for candidates interested in the Office of the Curator should specify one or more preferred project areas.

Office of Information Technology

The Office of Information Technology is responsible for the development, operation, and maintenance of the Court’s information systems. The Court’s technology environment includes a variety of Court-wide software applications, individual office systems, and off-the-shelf products.

The IT Operations Intern will support both the Network Administration Group (NAG) and Workstation Administration Group (WAG), gaining hands-on experience across core IT infrastructure and end-user support functions. This role provides exposure to enterprise networking environments, system monitoring, troubleshooting, hardware deployments, documentation standards and customer service best practices.

The intern will split time between proactive network monitoring and operational tasks within NAG and direct user-facing technical support within WAG.

Library

The Supreme Court Library was officially created in 1935 when the Supreme Court Building opened. The Library’s primary mission is to assist the Justices in fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities by supporting their wide-ranging legal and non-legal research needs. The Library has a staff of thirty-one, a collection of over 650,000 print materials, and access to a wide variety of electronic resources.

Interns in the Library assist full-time Library employees with a variety of tasks, including collections management, digitization, metadata creation, and technology projects.

OFFICE OF THE MARSHAL OF THE COURT

Under the Judiciary Act of 1867, Congress granted the Court authority to appoint a Marshal to oversee Courtroom o