Good morning and welcome to Supreme Court Brief. The justices hold their private conference tomorrow instead of Friday, which is Good Friday and the beginning of Passover. They also begin the final two-week argument session of the term on Monday, April 18. As we wait for the wrap up of oral arguments, we check in with empirical scholar Adam Feldman's latest crunching of the data on Supreme Court clerk hiring. A recent study reports a significant increase in politically-motivated retirements by federal judges and justices since the 1970s. Plus, scroll down for a different view of creating "justices in waiting."

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