01-08-2020, 06:09 AM
I clerked for a Nixon appointee.
If you read our opinions (yes, I deserve credit for the writing but not the decisions), you'd think JFK liberals.
Decided for the broadest possible reading of the right to trial by jury, got reversed on appeal in the Supreme Court.
Gave the broadest possible reading to the First Amendment, a case finding that a high school teacher's approach to teaching
was protected speech.
(Of course, this limited evidence might suggest my judge was a conservative libertarian, but I'd argue not.)
Better times back then. In the Ninth Circuit, at least, merely good lawyers didn't get federal appointments,
although there is no arguing the political aspects of it, even then.
It was critical to know your Senators and some of the key people close to them.
If you read our opinions (yes, I deserve credit for the writing but not the decisions), you'd think JFK liberals.
Decided for the broadest possible reading of the right to trial by jury, got reversed on appeal in the Supreme Court.
Gave the broadest possible reading to the First Amendment, a case finding that a high school teacher's approach to teaching
was protected speech.
(Of course, this limited evidence might suggest my judge was a conservative libertarian, but I'd argue not.)
Better times back then. In the Ninth Circuit, at least, merely good lawyers didn't get federal appointments,
although there is no arguing the political aspects of it, even then.
It was critical to know your Senators and some of the key people close to them.