Tobi Merritt Edwards Young

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Tobi Merritt Edwards Young
Born
Tobi Lynn Merritt

Midwest City, Oklahoma, U.S.
NationalityChickasaw Nation, United States
Alma materDartmouth College
George Washington University (BA)
University of Mississippi School of Law (JD)
OccupationCorporate attorney
Known forExpert on civil rights law
Spouse(s)Evan Young

Tobi Merritt Edwards Young is a Native American lawyer and former law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.[1] She is a member of the Chickasaw Nation and is believed to be the first tribal member to clerk for a Supreme Court justice and the third person from Oklahoma to clerk.[2]

Early life and education[]

A native of Midwest City, Oklahoma, Young is the daughter of Nancy Edwards and Rick Merritt. She graduated from Dartmouth College and George Washington University.[2][3] In 2003, she received a JD degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law.[4]

Career[]

After graduation, Young clerked for Judge Jerome A. Holmes on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Young met Gorsuch when while working as a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.[5] She worked on school desegregation issues, voter rights such as ensuring Choctaw tribe members received voting instructions in their native language, and was a delegate to Human Rights conventions on torture in Geneva, Switzerland.[4]

She was general counsel and board secretary for the George W. Bush Presidential Center and worked as Associate Counsel for President Bush in the Office of the White House Counsel.[6][7][8] Prior to attending law school, she was press secretary for congressman J.C. Watts.[2] She has taught law as an adjunct professor at Ole Miss.[9]

In September 2019, Young helped lead a public conversation with Justice Gorsuch at Pepperdine University School of Law.[10] Currently, she is a vice president of legal and government affairs at Cognizant.[11]

Personal life[]

She is married to , who was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas in 2021. Before that, he was a partner at the law firm Baker Botts in Austin, Texas, an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, and had clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia.[12][13]

See also[]

  • List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

References[]

  1. ^ Stern, Mark Joseph (April 2018). "The Supreme Court Is Terrible at Hiring Diverse Law Clerks, but Neil Gorsuch Is Surprisingly Good at It". Slate.com. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Meet the First-Known Native American SCOTUS Clerk". TheBeatDC.com. April 16, 2018. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  3. ^ "Alumni Newsmakers-The 1990s". George Washington University Magazine. Fall–Winter 2008. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
  4. ^ a b "Press Release". chickasaw.net. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
  5. ^ McDermott, Kevin (March 15, 2017). "Friends of Gorsuch stump for Supreme Court nominee in St. Louis to pressure McCaskill". St. Louis Post Dispatch. Retrieved July 27, 2018. In the article, Young is incorrectly described as Gorsuch's former clerk.
  6. ^ "George W. Bush Personnel Announcement". The American Presidency Project. Univ of California, Santa Barbara. March 6, 2008. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  7. ^ Gerstein, Josh (April 2014). "George W. Bush surprises on White House records". Politico. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  8. ^ Reagan, Ronald (18 April 1982). "Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, United States President Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)". Government Printing Office – via Google Books.
  9. ^ "Faculty Bio-Tobi Young". University of Mississippi School of Law. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
  10. ^ "US Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch Visits Pepperdine School of Law". Yahoo Finance. GlobeNewswire. September 11, 2019. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  11. ^ "BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Tobi Young, VP of legal and government affairs at Cognizant". Politico.com. February 13, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  12. ^ Lat, David (May 17, 2018). "Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Two Firsts At One First Street". AbovetheLaw.com. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
  13. ^ "Faculty Bio-Evan Young". University of Mississippi Law School. Retrieved August 8, 2018.

Selected publications[]

  • Longwitz, Tobi Edwards (June 2003). "Indian Gaming: Making a New Bet on the Legislative and Executive Branches After the IGRA's Judicial Bust". Gaming Law Review. 7 (3): 197–204. doi:10.1089/109218803766651485.


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