U.S. Supreme Court. Credit: Mike Scarcella / NLJ

The retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy and Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation clash will mark two of the biggest moments of 2018 at the U.S. Supreme Court. Of course, there was so much more on and off the court—including the serious and the lighthearted. Here's a collection of some of our most-read pieces about the high court published this year.

>> $400K for SCOTUS Clerks: A Bonus Too Far? “I am now hoping my grandchildren get clerkships. It will be $1 million by then,” says Sidley Austin's Carter Phillips.

>> How to Tell a Justice They're Wrong Is there a right way or a wrong way for an advocate to tell a U.S. Supreme Court justice that he or she is wrong during oral arguments? Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer's Lisa Blatt has some thoughts on this.

>> What Makes Chief Justice Roberts Lose His Cool Roberts is a stickler for procedure, and one episode shows he is more prone to flare up when rules and traditions are sidestepped than anything else.

>> Colbert Asked RBG Whether a Hotdog Is a Sandwich. Here's What You Say Morrison & Foerster's Joseph Palmore offered this bite: “To be frank, I do not relish the idea of disagreeing with my former boss on such a beefy question. So I won't. Under the definition as served up by Colbert, a hot dog is a sandwich.” Colbert would later ask Justice Sonia Sotomayor the same question.

>> No, Justice Ginsburg and Former US Solicitors Are Not Advising This Crypto Company “I am not into cryptocurrency—I generally try to avoid things that start with crypto,” said Paul Clement, the Kirkland & Ellis partner.

>> Amid Tough Questioning of Kavanaugh, a Peace Offering in the Form of a Book At the end of a round of aggressive questioning by Sen. Dick Durbin, then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh held up a book and thanked Durbin for giving it to him. It was not just any book.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / National Law Journal

>> A Kennedy Concurrence Fuels Speculation on Chevron's Future—And His In late June, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy sharply criticized the Chevron doctrine, raising questions about the future of judicial deference to federal agencies—and adding to the buzz in Washington about whether he will stay or leave the court.

>> Tension Runs High on Supreme Court's Final Day of the Term Minutes before the term's final session began, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's wife Mary—apparently accompanied by several family members or friends—slipped into the justices' guest seats.

>> Kavanaugh's Clerk Hires: Inside the Diverse, Ivy-Heavy Group of 48 With an affinity for Harvard and Yale law school graduates and an objective to recruit women and minorities, Brett Kavanaugh has hired 48 law clerks as a circuit court judge, a cohort that is an important part of his career and persona. Kavanaugh would hire four female clerks for his first term on the high court.

>> Jeff Sessions Lauded New 'Originalist' Majority at Supreme Court. Not So Fast How did he get to five? Don't be too quick to add Brett Kavanaugh to the list, some legal scholars said.

>> Gorsuch Hires Native American Law Clerk, Likely First in SCOTUS History In the ongoing controversy over the dearth of minority Supreme Court law clerks, it has often been noted, without contradiction, that no known Native American has ever clerked for the court, which routinely handles one or more Indian law cases every term.

>> Minority Attorneys Take a Closer Look at the SCOTUS Clerk Diversity Dearth U.S. Supreme Court justices should step up and state publicly that they want greater diversity among their law clerks, said Howard University School of Law Dean Danielle Holley-Walker.

>> Breaking Streak, SCOTUS Appoints Advocate Outside Ranks of Former Clerks Without fanfare, the U.S. Supreme Court broke a long streak of appointing former law clerks to undertake prestigious oral arguments in cases in which one party has abandoned a stance that the justices want discussed.

Justice Clarence Thomas (2013). Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi / ALM

>> Clarence Thomas, in Dissent, Asserts Gun Rights Aren't 'Favored' at High Court Against the backdrop of a nation struggling again with the tragedy of a school shooting and a debate over guns, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a blistering dissent that accused the U.S. Supreme Court of making the right to keep and bear arms “a constitutional orphan.”

>> How Stephen Shapiro Helped Lawyers—and Reporters—Understand SCOTUS Knowingly or not, most Supreme Court advocates have interacted with Mayer Brown partner Stephen Shapiro by poring through “Supreme Court Practice,” the tome he co-authored that tells how to navigate the arcane traditions, rules and preferences of the court. Shapiro was killed in August at the age of 72.