Noah Feldman, Columnist

There's a Lot of Harvard and Yale on the Supreme Court. And That's OK.

Both Republican and Democratic presidents have their reasons for choosing nominees from such a small pool.

August 7, 2022 at 12:00 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

The door is open.
Photographer: Brooks Kraft/Corbis News via Getty Images

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Eight out of nine Supreme Court justices went to Harvard or Yale law schools. So did nearly a fifth of the federal judiciary. This rankles some politicians, watchdog groups and others who see it as an outrageous manifestation of elitism that needs to be changed, given how much power this small group has over the lives of 329 million Americans.

Or does it reflect a more benign aspect of current elite higher education, namely the broad range of students accepted? Above all, does it matter for the functioning of the federal judiciary?