Article III Groupie isn't the only one who fawns over Supreme Court clerks, as they move from triumph to triumph, collecting accolades from every corner. Consider the following:
1. In this most interesting New York Times article, Adam Liptak and Todd S. Purdum examine SCOTUS nominee John G. Roberts's tenure as a law clerk to then-Associate Justice Rehnquist. In trying to explain the importance of a Supreme Court clerkship to a readership that extends beyond law geeks, they breathlessly write: "A Supreme Court clerkship is the ultimate legal status symbol, reserved for students of stunning intellectual horsepower."
Indeed! A3G couldn't have put it better herself. And she can't help but wonder: Has someone over at the Times been reading a little too much UTR?
(This piece, from the Dallas Morning News, offers a somewhat more sober description of life as a SCOTUS clerk: "They've got power. For a year, they plunge into the nation's most vexing issues. And in legal circles, they emerge with nearly unmatchable cachet.")
2. Read this puff piece about one of Justice Scalia's current clerks, Evan Young (whom A3G previously profiled here). And you thought A3G was sycophantic!*
3. Penn Law School prof Kermit Roosevelt (OT 1999/Souter), the highly attractive great-great-grandson of Teddy Roosevelt, recently published a novel, In the Shadow of the Law -- to rave reviews, natch. His fellow member of the Elect, Professor Alan M. Dershowitz, described the book in the New York Times Book Review as "an impressive first novel," which he "recommend[ed] with real enthusiasm."
4. Finally, check out how Noah Feldman (OT 1998/Souter) was recently named "Most Beautiful Brainiac" by New York magazine, in their "Most Beautiful New Yorkers" issue.** When was the last time a Supreme Court clerk and law school professor shared a magazine page with the likes of Liv Tyler, Mos Def, Paul Bettany, and Jennifer Connelly? Spectacular!
Of course, if any SCOTUS clerk were to wind up in this enviable position, it would be the strikingly handsome and unbelievably brilliant Professor Feldman. Indeed, Noah Feldman is one of the boldest of boldface names among the Elect. A Rhodes Scholar, celebrity law prof (at NYU and Yale), and All-Purpose Public Intellectual, Feldman has published no fewer than three books. He has written on such hot topics as church-state relations, nation building in Iraq, and Islamic democracy (and he shrewdly turns his books into buzz-generating New York Times Magazine pieces, for mass consumption).
Despite being such a prolific scholar, Professor Feldman is also a renowned classroom teacher. His NYU students "adore" him, raving about his "fantastic" teaching. They have been known to follow him around Greenwich Village, like legal academic groupies.
Alas, much to the disappointment of his female fans, Professor Feldman is married -- to another member of the Elect, of course. Feldman's wife, Jeannie Suk (OT 2003/Souter), works as a crime-fighting assistant district attorney in the legendary Manhattan D.A.'s office. Suk is no slouch herself: she's an accomplished ballet dancer, pianist, and singer; a Marshall Scholar, with a D.Phil. from Oxford; and a published author, whose doctoral thesis was published by Oxford University Press.***
Posh and Becks, Will and Jada -- move over. It's Good to Be Noah and Jeannie!
* A3G thanks How Appealing for the links to the news articles mentioned in items (1) and (2).
** A3G thanks the many Gotham-based readers who brought Feldman's coronation as an "ivory tower hottie" to her attention.
*** Suk's thesis, Post-Colonial Paradoxes in French Caribbean Writing, is described as follows by the OUP:
Lucidly articulating the overlap and interplay of the distance of oceanic crossing, the discontinuities of allegorical signification, and the gap at the heart of trauma, Suk probes the paradoxical dynamic of impossible yet inevitable returns in space, time, and the psyche. She shows how literal and metaphorical "crossings" both produce and impede history and representation. The result is a new framework for understanding the intersection of postcolonial, psychoanalytic, deconstructive, and French Caribbean problems in a language attentive to improbable recurrences across theories and registers.
Uh, come again? But before you ask for the English translation, consider the following rave from a UTR correspondent: "I'm doing a joint degree in law and comp lit, and I did my undergraduate thesis on postcolonial theory, so I realize I'm not your average bear. But I have to say that Jeannie's book is EXCELLENT. It's a page-turner that makes The Da Vinci Code feel slow!"
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