Welcome to Supreme Court Brief, and to the start of July. The court's still got a few decisions to publish—we're keeping an eye out. In the meantime, we've also got our eyes on next term (assuming this one ends before October)—and the new group of law clerks, including one whose parents probably have a few things to say about their experience. Plus: we tackle the latest release of financial disclosures, casting a wide net for new and notable items. Scroll down for headlines, including a roundup of links about how Chief Justice Roberts has defied expectations.

Thanks for reading, and your feedback is welcome and appreciated. Contact Marcia Coyle at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MarciaCoyle. And contact SCB contributor Tony Mauro at [email protected] and on Twitter at @Tonymauro.

What's (Actually) Fishy in Gorsuch's Financial Disclosure

Bob Todd is not a lawyer and has never met Justice Neil Gorsuch. Todd owns a bait and tackle shop, in fact. But they both hail from Boulder County, Colorado, or thereabouts, and Todd decided last year that Gorsuch deserved a gift. A gift to Gorsuch, Todd said, for "giving up his life as a Coloradan, his life in the outdoors" by moving to Washington, D.C., in 2017.

And that's why Todd's name turned up on Gorsuch's financial disclosure form for 2019. Justices are required to report gifts they've received valued at more than $390, and Todd gave Gorsuch a $500 fishing rod.

"It's a nice fishing rod, but that's just an estimate," Todd said in a phone interview. "All parts of it are made in America, and that's unusual. I've been in the shop for 45 years, and I had a lot of parts that have been around for a while that I used."

While not a lawyer, Todd said he has views about the law. "My personal belief is that the Constitution should be interpreted as it was written, and no one believes that as much as Gorsuch does," Todd said. "I hope he lives a long and healthy life, and I hope he picks up the rod once in a while and takes a break."

CNN once described Gorsuch as a "laid back, fly-fishing, fourth-generation Coloradan who also happens to have an Ivy League education, a brilliant legal mind and an established judicial record." Gorsuch once fly-fished with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, and a photo of that trip circulated widely around the time of Gorsuch's confirmation.

"I soon came to learn that, while we might hold similar views on judging, Justice Scalia and I held very different views about fishing," Gorsuch recounted in his book A Republic: If You Can Keep It. "Where I would suggest, say, gently unfurling a line in the direction of a rising trout, Justice Scalia preferred another approach: lashing the stream with the enthusiasm of a son of Queens."

Gorsuch's financial report as well as that of Justice Samuel Alito Jr. were released on June 29, weeks after the other justices' reports were made public. They received an extension.

A few tidbits from the reports, with a hat tip to Fix the Court, which tracks the financial disclosures:

—Fishing rod or not, Gorsuch took 15 reimbursed trips in 2019, mainly to promote his book "A Republic If You Can Keep It," which brought in more than $375,000 in royalties and other fees in 2019.

—Alito, one of only a few justices who own stocks, confirmed that he shedded his shares in Oracle in January 19, presumably to participate in the Google v. Oracle case, then pending.

—Both Alito and Gorsuch reported law school teaching gigs on 2019, with Alito taking in $15,000 at Duke Law and Alito and Gorsuch making $25,000 from Antonin Scalia Law School.

In 2018, Scalia Law paid Gorsuch $13,250.04 for teaching. Both times, the teaching took place in Padua Italy. —Tony Mauro

When Clerking Is a Shared Family Experience

In spite of the discombobulated schedule of the Supreme Court, a fresh class of law clerks will soon be reporting for duty at the court or on Zoom. One of the new clerks brings with him a rare lineage.

Joshua Revesz, who will be clerking for Justice Elena Kagan, is the son of two Supreme Court clerks. His father is Richard Revesz, who clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall in 1984. (Kagan clerked for Marshall in the 1987 term.) Joshua's mother is Vicki Been, who clerked for Justice Harry Blackmun, also in the 1984 term.

Both parents are professors at New York University School of Law, though Been is on leave to serve as deputy New York City mayor for housing and economic development. Dad Revesz is a former dean of the law school and has participated in more than a dozen amicus briefs filed at the Supreme Court, most recently in Seila Law v. CFPB. Kagan, a former dean of Harvard Law School, has spoken glowingly of Richard Revesz, who, the justice once said, "imbued [NYU law school] with his optimism, with his sense of adventure and innovation."

Joshua Revesz on June 26 alerted the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that he was withdrawing his appearance as counsel in the emoluments clause case In re Trump. The Yale Law School grad has been a lawyer in the civil division of the Justice Department since 2018. Before then he clerked for Judge Merrick Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Earlier, he was a summer associate at Jenner & Block. The Revesz parents declined to talk about their son's new job.

It turns out that Joshua Revesz is not the only Supreme Court clerk who is the offspring of two high court clerk-parents, and the story also involves Kagan. In 2015, Jonathan Meltzer clerked for Kagan, and is now an associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson. His father was Dan Meltzer, a clerk to Justice Potter Stewart in the 1976 term. And he married Ellen Semenoff, another Thurgood Marshall clerk from the same term. She is currently an assistant city manager in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In the too-coincidental-to-imagine category, Dan Meltzer, who was a deputy White House counsel in the Obama administration, was appointed as Director of the American Law Institute in 2013. Because of ill health, he declined the appointment and died in 2015. The person appointed to replace him in 2014 was none other than Richard Revesz, who still holds that position.

In 2007, we reported on other clerk-related family pairings (with only one parent who was a clerk): Jessica Phillips (daughter of Carter Phillips); Rebecca Tushnet (daughter of Mark Tushnet); Renée Lettow Lerner (daughter of Charles Lettow); Mary Mikva (daughter of Abner Mikva); Martha Minow (daughter of Newton Minow); and Gay Gellhorn (daughter of Walter Gellhorn). There probably have been more since. Any other familial clerks that we've missed? Please let us know. —Tony Mauro

Supreme Court Headlines: What We're Reading

John Roberts Shatters Expectations for the Supreme Court. "Chief Justice John Roberts has shattered societal and political expectations of the conservative Supreme Court and thrust it—and his stewardship—to the center of the national scene. In a series of striking moves on immigration, LGBTQ rights and abortion, Roberts has established himself as one of the most influential figures in America today as he as sided with the court's liberal bloc." [CNN] • More here at the NLJ: Roberts Sharply Counters Criticism of His Vote Striking Down Louisiana Abortion Law • FiveThirtyEight has a report looking at where the fight could head next • An op-ed from law professor Mary Ziegler: How Not to Outlaw Abortion • The Washington Post has more Roberts analysis here, and The New York Times here.

Obamacare Backers See Hope in Roberts Opinion in Non-Health Case."In striking down a provision of the Dodd-Frank Act that protected the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from being fired and leaving the agency intact, Roberts signaled Monday that he may do something similar with the Affordable Care Act—toss out its mandate to buy insurance without throwing out the entire law, health lawyers say." [Bloomberg Law]

The Lawyer Behind the Biggest LGBTQ+ Legal Victory in History. "Chase Strangio explains how the ACLU won the Supreme Court ruling protecting LGBTQ+ rights in the workplace, and what comes next." [GQ]

Samuel Alito Dissents. A Frustrating Few Months for the Conservative Justice. "Although Alito penned a victory for the government in an immigration case last week, and he may deliver wins for the right in other areas such as religious liberty before the term is over, his unhappiness with the court's direction has been palpable." [CNN]

Why Isn't the Supreme Court on Twitter? "Live audio's success only came after years of resistance from the justices. That should prompt them to reconsider other unnecessary habits that set them apart from the Americans they serve. One of the most notable examples is the court's total absence from social media." [The New Republic]

Justices Have a Lot to Say, But All Is Quiet in the Supreme Court. "The show has not gone on during the time of quarantine." [ABA Journal]

The rulings…

Justices Strike Down Broad Rule Limiting Generic Trademarks. Companies using otherwise generic terms for their websites are eligible for trademark protection if the domain is distinct to the general public, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, which struck down a broad federal rule that blocked Booking.com from registering its mark. [NLJ]

Breyer Predicts 'Entanglement and Conflict' After Court Backs State Aid for Religious Schools. In Tuesday's divided U.S. Supreme Court decision on state funding of religious schools, a dissenting Justice Stephen Breyer issued a warning to his conservative colleagues that they were encouraging the very religious conflicts that the Constitution's drafters sought to avoid. [NLJ] The New York Times has more here.

Supreme Court Clears Trump Administration Plan to Resume Federal Executions. "The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Trump administration to carry out the first executions in the federal criminal justice system in 17 years." [Politico]

Stanford Law Students Help Win Landmark Supreme Court Case. "The Supreme Court's ruling last week that federal law protects gay and transgender workers from discrimination was facilitated, in part, by law students working in the Stanford Supreme Court Litigation Clinic." [Stanford News]