Law clerk hiring by S. Ct. judges

[gerald neuman]

As long as we're discussing anecdotal evidence of clerkship hiring
patterns, let me add the following memory:  When I was a law student and
then a D.C. circuit clerk, the rumor was that Judge Skelly Wright's
practice was to hire from Harvard either the newly elected President of
the law review,
or, if that person wasn't available, the person who got the next
most votes in the presidential election (a fact presumably reported by the
clerk-to-be who had been hired the previous year).  This rumor was
apparently confirmed by the events as they played out that year.  When I
arrived in Washington (not in Judge Wright's chambers) the next rumor was
that Justice Brennan's practice was to
hire from Judge Wright's chambers the clerk who had come from the
University of Chicago Law School (I don't know how the Chicago clerk was
hired in the first place), and indeed that year the former editor-in-chief
of the Chicago law review, who was clerking for Judge Wright and who was
considered conservative, was selected by Justice Brennan.
I can't demonstrate that the rumors were true, but their algorithmic
nature is, at a minimum, entertaining, and contrasts nicely with the
current allegations.
-- Gerry Neuman