Recent coverage of the death of Justice Ginsburg contains an error of fact (also contained—but subsequently corrected—in a "New Yorker" article some years ago) that "a federal district judge, Edmund L. Palmieri, … agreed to hire her only after [a Columbia Law School professor] threatened never to send the judge another law clerk if he did not." Aside from the risibility of that "threat" (Judge Palmieri, although a Columbia Law graduate, hired law clerks from other schools) I can attest that the "threat", if made, was not the cause of the judge's job offer. Judge Palmieri was no stranger to professional women. His sister was a physician and he and his wife raised two daughters to be a physician and a lawyer, respectively. (And Ruth was not his first female law clerk. Jeanne Silver, Yale Law '54, was.)

I (a Yale Law School graduate) was Judge Palmieri's clerk when he interviewed Ruth Ginsburg. He told me that he was impressed with the academic achievements and bearing of the young woman he had just interviewed and that he was particularly taken with her honesty in telling him that her husband was in remission from a bout with testicular cancer and that she might have to resign the clerkship or ask for an extended leave if his condition required it. Judge Palmieri intended to offer her the position but wanted assurances from the Columbia Law placement office that assistance would be forthcoming in finding a replacement for Ruth if she had to leave.