Comments on: On Becoming a Supreme Court Clerk

By: TO

TO — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 21:07:39 +0000

As smart as Supreme Court clerks often are, I suspect that Mr. Bragdon used the word in the “grilled” sense.

I think he just meant intense questioning, and preferred the image of a sharp motorized rotary tool to the image of a heated piece of metal.

Though if he’d said “roasted” I would imagine Thomas and his clerks ridiculing him with jokes that had a conservative legal bent to them. “David Bragdon believes sooooo much in substantive due process….”

By: SCOTUSblog

SCOTUSblog — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 16:57:30 +0000

Blog Round-Up – Thursday, December 1st

In nomination news: Here is the 64 page questionnaire Judge Alito submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sentencing Law & Policy responds to the sentencing issues in the questionnaire here. On FindLaw, Rick Hasen has this post titled, “One Person…

By: SCOTUSblog

SCOTUSblog — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 16:05:35 +0000

Blog Round-Up – Friday, December 1st

By: SCOTUSblog

SCOTUSblog — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 16:04:42 +0000

Blog Round-Up – Friday, December 1st

By: scotus watcher

scotus watcher — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:56:32 +0000

A more charitable reading of the quote: conservative justices, more than most, must test whether freshly minted law students believe that left of center jurisprudence is the sum total of jurisprudence.

By: John Armstrong

John Armstrong — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 19:14:20 +0000

This may be picking a nit, but is Mr. Bragdon (or possibly the reporter) sure he wasn’t “grilled”? For him to be drilled implies that he was being taught the subject in question rather than being tested on it.

Actually, it’s not just pedantry. If this is the reporter’s error I don’t mind so much. However, if this is a SCOTUS clerk making the error, will similar errors in word-choice end up altering the fine points of a decision somewhere in the future?

By: Blue Room

Blue Room — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 17:53:27 +0000

“Too bad the interviewer didn’t ask the obvious follow-up question: which ‘key issues’ does this rising Supreme Court clerk think will be affected by the confirmation of Justice Roberts and the possible confirmation of Judge Alito?”

It’s not like he would have any idea; he probably spent about an hour and half in the building and only met with Thomas and his clerks.