Does Ideology Really Matter When Hiring Judicial Clerks?

"I spent a year working alongside three co-clerks and one judge who had fantastically different instincts than me on everything," said former Scalia counter clerk Gil Seinfeld.

October 07, 2022 at 01:07 PM

6 minute read

Judicial Ethics

Brad Kutner

The original version of this story was published on National Law Journal

What You Need to Know

Federal judges don't agree on whether ideology matters for clerkships.
While many judges seek diversity in clerk hiring, some have unique preferences ranging from educational history to political beliefs.
Ho was rebuked by a fellow judge from the Fifth Circuit shortly after his controversial comments were made public.

It's been a week since Judge James Ho of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit promised to stop hiring Yale Law School grads. But new comments from one of his fellow Fifth Circuit judges have renewed a debate in the clerkship world: does ideology matter for clerkships?