Clarence Thomas was 'key' to delaying certification of 2020 election, Trump lawyers said in emails

[BumRushDaShow]

21. Well they most likely take the assignment of the one being replaced

although in some cases, they might have been born/raised in and/or went to school in one of the states they have jurisdiciton over.

For example, when native Floridian Brown-Jackson came in, she replaced Breyer (a Harvard Law grad) who had jurisdiction over the 1st Circuit (that includes some New England states and Puerto Rico). However both went to Harvard and thus spent time in MA. There was a mention on SCOTUSBlog about that here and her having clerked for judges on the 1st Circuit.

Some other kin examples might be Sonia Sotomayor, who covers the 2nd Circuit which includes NY (and she was born and raised as a NYer), and Alito does the 3rd Circuit, which covers here in PA, as well as NJ & DE (and he is from NJ).

SCOTUSBlog did a nice little ditty on this when there were changes a couple years ago per this (because they do move them around as necessary each session) -

Court issues new circuit assignments
By Amy Howe
on Nov 20, 2020 at 12:06 pm

(snip)

Sotomayor’s move to the 2nd Circuit, which had previously been assigned to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who grew up in New York City and lived there before moving to Washington to become a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit), kicked off a game of musical circuits among the justices. Sotomayor had previously been responsible for the 10th Circuit, which is now assigned to Gorsuch, as well as the 6th Circuit, which is now assigned to Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh, who had previously been assigned to the 7th Circuit, also took on the 8th Circuit, ceding the 7th Circuit to Barrett.

(snip)