Which sitting Supreme Court justices are most likely to have a law school named after them one day?

I recently took a light survey on Twitter to see which sitting Supreme Court justices might one day have law schools named after them. Given the apparent rise of celebrity culture around Supreme Court justices, coupled with the sizeable gift to George Mason to rename the law school after the late Justice Antonin Scalia, I wondered whether this might be a new trend.

A helpful commenter identified ABA-accredited law schools currently named after former Supreme Court justices: John Marshall (one at University of Illinois-Chicago, and one in Atlanta); Thurgood Marshall; Salmon P. Chase (Northern Kentucky); Louis Brandeis (Louisville); Benjamin Cardozo (Yeshiva); Sandra Day O’Connor (Arizona State); and Antonin Scalia (George Mason). And there are plenty of “centers” (like the Rehnquist Center at the University of Arizona) or federal courthouses (like the Byron White Courthouse in Denver) named after Supreme Court justices.

From the readers’ most likely to least likely candidates—which largely comport with my best guesses. Only three were voted more likely than not to have law schools named after them within a decade of their death.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Naturally, the most celebrity-styled justice and the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court received the most votes, nearly unanimous. Whether Columbia would change its name (everyone has a price), or some other law school (New York, DC, or elsewhere) remains to be seen.

Sonia Sotomayor. The first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court, with a small celebrity following of her own—and, I think, a likelihood that a New York law school must be preparing to pitch donors on a package to rename the law school after her one day.

Clarence Thomas. The second African-American to serve on the Supreme Court with a lengthy term of service, a particular originalist methodology, and a small but vocal celebrity following of his own, the right (in more than one sense of the word!) school would have to come along.

John Roberts. Here the voters start to say that it’s more likely that the justice would not have a school named after him than would. And here, the “centrist” or “unanimity-maker” justice may lack the celebrity, despite his role as Chief Justice.

Elena Kagan. I admit, I was surprised to see voters to pessimistic about her. Kagan is a sharp writer and a good public presence in interviews. Perhaps her fate changes in the decades to come—or perhaps she’s simply not the “celebrity” of others.

Neil Gorsuch, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh, in that order, were voted overwhelmingly unlikely to have law schools named after them.

In any event, it’s a fairly meaningless survey—but an interesting popular observation about which Supreme Court justices are likely to have the weight to have law schools named after them. Assuredly, much can change in the decades to come!