Since she has no time to write words of her own, Article III Groupie will reprint the words of others. A3G has another UTR discovery request to propround to her readership on behalf of a third party (as she previously did for UTR reader Jeffrey Toobin)*. Here it is:
My name is Todd Peppers, and I am an assistant professor in the Department of Public Affairs at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. I am presently completing a book manuscript on United States Supreme Court law clerks that will be published later this year by Stanford University Press. The book examines how the hiring and utilization of law clerks has changed over time, from the 1880's to the present.
I have had difficulty finding former law clerks of current Supreme Court justices to talk to about their clerkships. I was hoping that some former law clerks who are fans of this blog might consider my plea for an interview. My questions do not focus on such confidential issues as the justice's views of a specific case/other justices or of a particular point of constitutional law. Instead, I'm interested in how you were interviewed/hired and what job duties you were given. I'm also interested in the personal bonds that developed in your chambers between the law clerks and the justices. Part of my argument is that the close personal bonds that existed between former justices and their clerks -- Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, Stanley Reed -- are less likely to be found today, given the greater number of law clerks.
If you are willing to talk with me, either on or off the record, please contact me. Many thanks.
Excellent! A3G can't wait to read Professor Peppers's book, which sounds like it will be fabulous. If you can help out Professor Peppers -- who is, it should be noted, not asking you to "pull a Vanity Fair" (i.e., to dish in substantive terms about your work on a recent Supreme Court case) -- please email him. Thanks!
* Jeff Toobin has been doing some great work for the New Yorker lately, such as this fascinating piece about Leslie Crocker Snyder -- the magnificent New York litigatrix who is challenging Robert Morgenthau in the race for Manhattan District Attorney.
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