Justice Clarence Thomas has earned a reputation as a frequent dissenter during his 26 years on the U.S. Supreme Court bench, and when it comes to the clerks he hires, he also strays from the pack.

In a system where justices pull heavily from their own alma maters and a handful of other top schools to fill the coveted slots, Thomas casts the widest net.

He has hired from 23 different law schools since 2005, with one-third of his clerks coming from schools outside the Top 10 on the U.S. News and World Report rankings. The approach, he has said, enables him to find excellence “from all over.”

➤➤ INFOGRAPHIC: Click here to view the Top 15 law schools for Supreme Court clerk placements and sort by justice to see who's hiring from which law schools.

His clerk class in 2008 generated quite the internet buzz that year. Not one of the four bright young attorneys the justice chose as clerks graduated from an elite law school. Instead, they hailed from George Washington University Law School; George Mason University School of Law; Creighton University School of Law; and Rutgers School of Law-Camden, none of which land in U.S. News Top 20 law schools. (Creighton, in Omaha, Nebraska, came in at No. 120 in this year's rankings.)

By contrast, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Anthony Kennedy have hired 10 percent or fewer of their clerks from law schools outside the U.S. News Top 10 since 2005. The late Antonin Scalia hired just a single graduate from those nonelite schools during that period—the interloper coming from George Washington University Law School.

Over the past decade, Harvard and Yale have increased their dominance with graduates of the two law schools accounting for half of all Supreme Court law clerks.

“Some of the justices don't interview or even consider students from other schools or don't take those students seriously even when they come from the same feeder judges, and have perfect credentials,” said Micah Schwartzman, who heads the clerkship committee for the No. 8 ranked University of Virginia School of Law.

The always-direct Scalia explained his preference for clerks from only the most prestigious law schools during a 2009 talk at American University Washington College of Law. “By and large, I'm going to be picking from the law schools that basically are the hardest to get into …,” Scalia said. “If they come in the best and the brightest, they're probably going to leave the best and the brightest, OK?”

But Thomas, ideologically aligned with Scalia, gave a very different perspective on clerk hiring while speaking to students at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2012.

“There are smart kids every place,” he said. “They are male, they are female, they are black, they're white, they're from the West, they're from the South, they're from public schools, they're from public universities, they're from poor families, they're from sharecroppers, they're from all over.” He added, “I look at the kid who shows up. Is this a kid that could work for me?”

Thomas's former clerks say they appreciate his wider search from law schools that aren't traditional Supreme Court feeders.

“He believes you can find excellence in all sorts of different places,” said Claire Evans, a 2008 Thomas clerk who graduated from Rutgers School of Law-Camden. “To me, it's a credit to him that he's willing to look anywhere and everywhere, and to consider my application.”

➤➤ SCOTUS Clerks: Who Gets the Golden Ticket? Join reporter Tony Mauro and Hogan Lovells partner Neal Katyal on Thursday, Dec. 14, for a conference call about clerk hiring and diversity. Click here to register.

Justice Clarence Thomas has earned a reputation as a frequent dissenter during his 26 years on the U.S. Supreme Court bench, and when it comes to the clerks he hires, he also strays from the pack.

In a system where justices pull heavily from their own alma maters and a handful of other top schools to fill the coveted slots, Thomas casts the widest net.

He has hired from 23 different law schools since 2005, with one-third of his clerks coming from schools outside the Top 10 on the U.S. News and World Report rankings. The approach, he has said, enables him to find excellence “from all over.”

➤➤ INFOGRAPHIC: Click here to view the Top 15 law schools for Supreme Court clerk placements and sort by justice to see who's hiring from which law schools.

His clerk class in 2008 generated quite the internet buzz that year. Not one of the four bright young attorneys the justice chose as clerks graduated from an elite law school. Instead, they hailed from George Washington University Law School; George Mason University School of Law; Creighton University School of Law; and Rutgers School of Law-Camden, none of which land in U.S. News Top 20 law schools. (Creighton, in Omaha, Nebraska, came in at No. 120 in this year's rankings.)

By contrast, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Anthony Kennedy have hired 10 percent or fewer of their clerks from law schools outside the U.S. News Top 10 since 2005. The late Antonin Scalia hired just a single graduate from those nonelite schools during that period—the interloper coming from George Washington University Law School.

Over the past decade, Harvard and Yale have increased their dominance with graduates of the two law schools accounting for half of all Supreme Court law clerks.

“Some of the justices don't interview or even consider students from other schools or don't take those students seriously even when they come from the same feeder judges, and have perfect credentials,” said Micah Schwartzman, who heads the clerkship committee for the No. 8 ranked University of Virginia School of Law.

The always-direct Scalia explained his preference for clerks from only the most prestigious law schools during a 2009 talk at American University Washington College of Law. “By and large, I'm going to be picking from the law schools that basically are the hardest to get into …,” Scalia said. “If they come in the best and the brightest, they're probably going to leave the best and the brightest, OK?”

But Thomas, ideologically aligned with Scalia, gave a very different perspective on clerk hiring while speaking to students at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2012.

“There are smart kids every place,” he said. “They are male, they are female, they are black, they're white, they're from the West, they're from the South, they're from public schools, they're from public universities, they're from poor families, they're from sharecroppers, they're from all over.” He added, “I look at the kid who shows up. Is this a kid that could work for me?”

Thomas's former clerks say they appreciate his wider search from law schools that aren't traditional Supreme Court feeders.

“He believes you can find excellence in all sorts of different places,” said Claire Evans, a 2008 Thomas clerk who graduated from Rutgers School of Law-Camden. “To me, it's a credit to him that he's willing to look anywhere and everywhere, and to consider my application.”

➤➤ SCOTUS Clerks: Who Gets the Golden Ticket? Join reporter Tony Mauro and Hogan Lovells partner Neal Katyal on Thursday, Dec. 14, for a conference call about clerk hiring and diversity. Click here to register.