By Samuel Rubenfeld
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke to the Law School on Tuesday as part of a panel discussion about judicial clerkships, and 25 students recieved the opportunity to sit with him and ask questions during a separate event an hour later.
The event was closed to all outside press, at Justice Alito’s request, but The Chronicle received exclusive press access.
“This is sort of a family reunion for me,” Alito said, of the panel which included Alito himself and Judge Leonard Garth, whom Alito had clerked for, who spoke via video feed from the University of Arizona Law School. Also on the panel was another clerk of Garth’s, Norman Silber, who is a professor at the Law School.
Nora Demleitner, the dean of the Law School, clerked for Alito.
Due to the increase in both the volume and variety of cases, “clerks are indispensable to the justice system today,” Alito said. He emphasized the need to be a “generalist” in the law, meaning a clerk should be both an expert and a quick learner.
“Law clerks, for the most part, have to be smarter than I am,” Garth quipped, to laughter. “That’s not hard to achieve… What I want is someone to challenge the analysis that I have.”
The panel took questions from the audience, which was both in the Moot Courtroom and in Phoenix, exclusively about clerkships. One student asked Alito about a specific case, but he refused to answer, saying he “will not answer questions on statutory interpretation” during the panel discussion.
One law student expressed concern about elitism at the federal level during his search for clerkships, which Alito said is “unfortunate.”
“There’s no magic signal,” Alito added, saying that acceptance from him comes from more than just which law school the application is coming from.
During the sit-down session, Alito was asked what he would do if he fundamentally disagrees with a law.
“In a situation where the law is clear…I don’t think I have the lawful authority to do what I think the law says if I disagree with it,” he said.
Twenty-five students sit in an exclusive session with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The students submitted three questions and a resume to get in. (Denni Lozza)