This story, on David Garrow’s criticism of Justice Blackmun for relying too heavily on his clerks, is quite typical in quoting adoring former clerks who strongly defend Blackmun. Have you ever seen a story about a Justice where the clerks are portrayed as anything but adoring? Have all the Justices for the last fifty years really been so adorable? Just once, I’d like to see a former clerk quoted along the lines of, “yes, my Justice was slipping a lot there toward the end, and let us clerks do too much of the work. He could sometimes be an obnoxious jerk, often went into partisan tirades against the president, and was occasionally known for drinking too much and embarassing himself in front of young female clerks. But he tried his best, and he’s only human, you know.”
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