Recently I had a chance to talk with Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg. He offered the following clarifications/corrections of my blog post of April 13 (Supreme Opportunity Lost):
In my post, I referred to (and attributed to Nina Totenberg) the oft-repeated claim that there were students at the party he attended while teaching at Harvard. Judge Ginsburg does not believe that was the case. The party took place during the 1978 academic year at the home of a faculty member. All of the guests he recalls being there were also faculty members or their spouses. It would have been extraordinary for any student to have been present at such a gathering, and no student has, so far as either he knows, ever claimed to have been there. Nor did he recall Ms. Totenberg ever claiming this in her 1987 story. In any event, she clearly does not say so at the link I provided.
I regret relating the exaggerated version of the story. I regret even more that this incident deprived us of a superb Supreme Court justice. Those who wish to know what we missed out on should look at his article in the Cato Supreme Court Review entitled On Constitutionalism (pdf).
Update: A reader writes:
I have always thought that to be true, too, from what I recalled of the news coverage of the incident. It wasn’t until the SNL skit featuring Jon Lovitz as Judge Ginsburg that gave me the idea that it was a party where students were present.
(See also Jon Rowe) So THAT is where this came from. Curse you, Lorne Michaels!
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