A Law Clerk Hiring Update: Nino Rocks Out!

The Rock Star of One First Street has selected the members of his glorious band, "The Originalists," for October Term 2006. Here are the four fortunate fellows who will be clerking for Justice Antonin Scalia in OT 2006:

1. Dan Bress (UVA '05/Wilkinson '05-'06)

2. Louis A. Chaiten (Northwestern '98/Sutton '03-'04)

3. Joshua Lipshutz (Stanford '05/Kozinski '05-'06)

4. Hashim Mooppan (Harvard '05/Luttigator '05-'06)

If you're feeling a sense of déjà vu, well, there's good reason. This all-male crew is remarkably similar to Justice Scalia's current crop of clerks: a Kozinski clerk, a Luttig clerk, and a Wilkinson clerk, all coming to One First Street directly from their circuit court gigs; and one clerk who graduated from law school a few years ago, clerked for a well-regarded conservative judge, and burnished his credentials with a stint at the DOJ's prestigious Office of Legal Counsel (a.k.a. Finishing School for the Elect).

Will Justice Scalia, like the late Chief Justice Rehnquist, play tennis with his clerks? Perhaps. If recent news reports are correct, it looks like Nino would rather spend his time on the court than at the Court!

Last night, Nightline reported:

At the historic swearing-in of John Roberts as the 17th chief justice of the United States last September, every member of the Supreme Court, except Antonin Scalia, was in attendance. ABC News has learned that Scalia had instead spent his afternoon on the tennis court at one of the country's top resorts, the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Bachelor Gulch, Colo., during a trip to a legal seminar sponsored by the Federalist Society.

Not only did Scalia's absence appear to be a snub of the new chief justice, but according to some legal ethics experts, it also raised questions about the propriety of what critics call judicial junkets.

As far as A3G is concerned, however, the "judicial junket" issue is not the most problematic aspect of this whole episode. Far more troubling: the brilliant Justice Scalia's ineptitude with a tennis racket!

Yes, it's true. Justice Scalia can dissent like nobody's business; but the most gifted prose stylist on the Supreme Court is no great shakes on the tennis court. The Nightline broadcast was accompanied by grainy, surreptitiously taken video footage of Justice Scalia in his tennis whites. And based on that footage -- which shows Nino offering up anemic, underhanded serves; hitting wild, flailing backhands; and lumbering across the court, with a sluggish shuffle of feet -- A3G would respectfully suggest: "Justice Scalia, please -- stick to the duck hunting!"

Comments

[Cassius]

Bloomberg reports: "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. has taken the unusual step of hiring a veteran lawyer, a top aide to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, as a law clerk."

Who are the Alito clerks?

[anonymous]

Help Amber Taylor finish the list
http://bamber.blogspot.com/2006/01/whos-who.html

[Ted]

PTN has the full slate.

[Clerk Lover]

Here's the post about the OT 2006 JPS clerks:

Justice Stevens's Clerks

[Article I Groupie]

Any info on Bristow Fellows? I look forward to future posts like the instant one.

[SCOTUS]

Didn't you post the 06 JPS clerks a while back? You should link to that again. I look forward to future updates as other justices finish hiring.

[Article II Groupie]

I heard that Justice Breyer as also hired for 06 - 2 from Harvard, one from Chicago, and one from Columbia. Does anyone have any more info?