Tobi Merritt Edwards Young

Tobi Merritt Edwards Young is a Native American lawyer. An enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, Young is believed to be the first member of a Native American tribe to serve as a law clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Early life and education A native of Midwest City, Oklahoma, Young is the daughter of Nancy Edwards and Rick Merritt. She briefly attended Dartmouth College and graduated from and George Washington University. In 2003, she received a JD degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law. Prior to attending law school, she was press secretary for U.S. Representative J. C. Watts. 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. She then clerked for Judge Jerome A. Holmes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

In 2018–19, Young served as a law clerk for Justice Neil Gorsuch of the Supreme Court of the United States. She is believed to be the first Native American tribal member to serve in that position. She first met Gorsuch when they were both working at the Justice Department.

Currently, she is the Senior Vice President of Legal and Chief Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Officer at Cognizant, a Fortune 250 technology services company.

She serves as the Chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee on the Halliburton Board of Directors.

Personal life

She is married to Evan A. Young, an associate justice on the Supreme Court of Texas since 2021. He is a former law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia.