Did somebody say it's cocktail hour? 
Posted on 05/31/2005 4:15:26 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Considering the gravity of their rulings and the precedence set by mere phrases in their decisions. They can sit there and type.
Justices, like Congressman and Senators, become products of their staffs in direct proportion to how much staff they have. The staffs put out their laws, their letters, their decisions, their press releases, their speeches. In the end, the Justice, Member of Congress, whatever, need only be sufficiently sober to cast a vote. All else can be done by others.
Congressman Billybob
If I recall correctly, Justice Douglas and Justice Brennan wrote their own opinions. Douglas did not even have law clerks on his staff, relying instead upon the pooled clerks to the limited extent that he used a clerk for menial tasks.
Did somebody say it's cocktail hour?
Was it Justice Powell who said that he personally wrote every decision that bore his name? I believe he also did the greater amount of the research that went into his writings.
Plese correct me if I have identified the wrong Justice.
Hmmmmm? I've always known this. That's what clerks do - the work - they look up all the relevant cases and then prepare their decisions .. many of which are accepted by the justices - because the justices believe the conclusion the clerk has reached is correct.
But .. I can see where ultra left-wing lawyers get a freer hand by inserting their warped philosophy into the language of these decisions.
Eye Opener......
In what regard?
Does anyone beleive the BS they print?
I've been a judicial clerk, a job I absolutely loved. The role of a Clerk depends extensively on the Judge. Some Judges use their clerks as well-educated secretaries, some essentially let them be the judge. Other judges, such as (allegedly) Richard Posner, don't let their clerks touch their judicial opinions, and instead use them as federally-funded researchers for their outside writing of books and law review articles.
In what regard?"
In regard to how few people (myself included) even dreamed that this could have been happening at any court, let alone our Supreme Court.
Call me naieve.
Char
Love your tagline!
I imagine that age has a lot to do with how much work a judge delegates. Being a Justice is hard and stressful mental work, more than an ill octogenarian can handle. If a Justice is letting his clerks decide his cases, he needs to retire.
Some of us, who regularly read the opinions of would not be. Some of the nonsense that gets a supreme court judge's signature is truely shocking.
RBGinsberg is an excellent example. She's apparently the IQ of a doorknob, and understands "logic" to about the same extent.
Congress can't limit the # of laclerks..separation of powers, etc. Ehat would be interesting is to see more info on how the law clerks are selected..that is to say,who does the preliminary screenign of applicants for the justices...thee people control the ideological flow of clerk-candidates..
Technically, it's up to law students to seek out what Justices they want to work for and make an application. If they make the cut, they are interviewed.
In practice, however, there is a network of law professors at the prestige schools, better regarded appellate judges and SCOTUS (and their clerks) who identify and groom candidates. The talent pool is law review staff (top 5-10% of class) at the prestige schools. By self-selection that is a liberal group, although conservatives have made in roads. The Federalist Society is a helpful network for conservatives, and there are a number of conservatives who worked for conservative Justices. For example, Laura Ingraham clerked for Justice Thomas.
Basically, being selected as a SCOTUS clerk is being admitted to an elite, and like most American elites it's a combination of talent, achievement, networking and compatibility with the particular Justice. Blackmun became more liberal with every year on the Court, so it is not surprising he hired very liberal clerks.
'. . . no responsible judge . . ."
These are the operative words in your missive. No responsible judge would leave it to clerks. This is most certainly true.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.