David Kravitz of Blue Mass. Group writes:
Katherine (Kate) Pringle is a partner in a New York law firm. She is also a progressive Democrat who was heavily involved in John Kerry’s presidential campaign. And after she graduated from law school in 1993, she spent a year working as a law clerk to Third Circuit Judge Samuel Alito, Jr.
In light of this morning’s nomination of Alito to the Supreme Court, I called Pringle to get her take. The short answer: she is very pleased with the nomination. . . ..
I asked Pringle to describe what kind of judge Alito is. She said that Alito is “very thoughtful, very careful, very respectful of Supreme Court precedent. He has a strong conservative intellectual approach to things, but he is respectful, honest, and straightforward.” She emphasized that Alito is very respectful of the litigants in the case before the court, and also of the opinions of his colleagues – he always looks for common ground and for opportunities to build consensus. She added that he is “not out there to accomplish a specific agenda,” and noted his respect for “the Supreme Court as an institution.” Incidentally, Alito’s “respect for litigants” was echoed in this NPR story that interviewed Clark Lombardi, also a former Alito clerk (I do not know whether Lombardi self-identifies as a liberal or a conservative). Lombardi emphasized that Alito was very aware of the “human side” of cases, and said that Alito never treated litigants as pawns in a grand ideological chess game. . . .
If you’ve heard any news stories about Judge Alito, you’ve heard that his supposed “nickname” (it remains unclear by whom it was bestowed) is “Scalito,” the idea being that he’s a “little Scalia.” I asked Pringle if she thought this was fair to Alito. “No,” she said, “I never have.” Pringle noted that Scalia and Alito are of course both of Italian ancestry, are both Catholic, and are both conservative, but she thinks there are more important differences between them including temperament, personal style, and the desire (or lack thereof) to find consensus. . . .
Pringle, as I noted earlier, is a liberal Democrat. I wondered whether her ideological bent was an anomaly in Alito’s chambers, or whether Alito routinely hired left-of-center law clerks. She didn’t know whether Alito intentionally hires law clerks with diverse viewpoints, but she did know that she was not alone – a good number of Alito’s past law clerks are far more liberal than he is. She also emphasized that Alito was always asking his clerks for their viewpoints, and that he enjoyed the debate when different opinions emerged on particular cases (this, too, was echoed in the NPR interview with ex-clerk Lombardi). . . .
For more, read David’s entire post. Naturally, keep in mind that law clerks tend to be quite fond of the judge for whom they clerked; though we all think that this is because we’re unbiased observers (though in my case, it’s true!), of course some degree of personal affection doubtless creeps in to the analysis. Still, this seemed worth passing along.
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