The article, “Scalia’s Law Clerks Find New Homes With Alito, Thomas” (NYLJ, April 6) reports on the dominance of ideological affinity and political party identification in the selection of U.S. Supreme Court law clerks. It brings to mind a heartening opposite experience 40 years ago. The late Clarence C. Newcomer, from solidly Republican Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, appointed to the federal district court in Philadelphia by President Richard Nixon, hired me as law clerk notwithstanding my liberal-to-radical college credentials, and a recommendation from a famously liberal law school professor who served in the Kennedy Administration.
My first bench memo advised that a motion by the dean of the Philadelphia bar, Henry T. Reath, seeking to dismiss a major race discrimination class action, was brilliantly conceived but ultimately incorrect. I nervously approached Judge Newcomer’s desk and seated myself. He voiced skepticism of my legal analysis, his demeanor suggested that he suspected political bias, and he seemed to be experiencing buyer’s remorse.
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