Law School Bias

MulaiAzhagi wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/us/12bar.html


After giving a talk on administrative law at American University Washington College of Law on April 24, Justice Scalia took a few questions. One was from a student who wanted to know what she had to do to become “outrageously successful” without “connections and elite degrees.”

Her law school, according to U.S. News & World Report, is ranked 45th in the country.

Justice Scalia gave a general answer. “Just work hard and be very good,” he said.

But then he turned to a discussion of the student’s chances of obtaining the ultimate credential in American law, a clerkship with a Supreme Court justice. Not good, he said.

“By and large,” he said, “I’m going to be picking from the law schools that basically are the hardest to get into. They admit the best and the brightest, and they may not teach very well, but you can’t make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. If they come in the best and the brightest, they’re probably going to leave the best and the brightest, O.K.?”

The data bear out the hard truth the justice delivered.

Over the last six years, the justices have hired about 220 law clerks. Almost half went to Harvard or Yale. Chicago, Stanford, Virginia and Columbia collectively accounted for 50 others. No one from Washington College of Law made the cut.

Justice Scalia said he could think of one sort-of exception to his rule favoring the elite schools.

“One of my former clerks whom I am the most proud of now sits on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals” in Cincinnati, the justice said, referring to Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton. But Justice Scalia explained that Mr. Sutton had been hired by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. after his retirement and then helped out in Justice Scalia’s chambers.

“I wouldn’t have hired Jeff Sutton,” Justice Scalia said. “For God’s sake, he went to Ohio State! And he’s one of the very best law clerks I ever had.”

MulaiAzhagi wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/us/12bar.html


After giving a talk on administrative law at American University Washington College of Law on April 24, Justice Scalia took a few questions. One was from a student who wanted to know what she had to do to become “outrageously successful” without “connections and elite degrees.”

Her law school, according to U.S. News & World Report, is ranked 45th in the country.

Justice Scalia gave a general answer. “Just work hard and be very good,” he said.

But then he turned to a discussion of the student’s chances of obtaining the ultimate credential in American law, a clerkship with a Supreme Court justice. Not good, he said.

“By and large,” he said, “I’m going to be picking from the law schools that basically are the hardest to get into. They admit the best and the brightest, and they may not teach very well, but you can’t make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. If they come in the best and the brightest, they’re probably going to leave the best and the brightest, O.K.?”

The data bear out the hard truth the justice delivered.

Over the last six years, the justices have hired about 220 law clerks. Almost half went to Harvard or Yale. Chicago, Stanford, Virginia and Columbia collectively accounted for 50 others. No one from Washington College of Law made the cut.

Justice Scalia said he could think of one sort-of exception to his rule favoring the elite schools.

“One of my former clerks whom I am the most proud of now sits on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals” in Cincinnati, the justice said, referring to Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton. But Justice Scalia explained that Mr. Sutton had been hired by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. after his retirement and then helped out in Justice Scalia’s chambers.

“I wouldn’t have hired Jeff Sutton,” Justice Scalia said. “For God’s sake, he went to Ohio State! And he’s one of the very best law clerks I ever had.”

MulaiAzhagi wrote:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/us/12bar.html


After giving a talk on administrative law at American University Washington College of Law on April 24, Justice Scalia took a few questions. One was from a student who wanted to know what she had to do to become “outrageously successful” without “connections and elite degrees.”

Her law school, according to U.S. News & World Report, is ranked 45th in the country.

Justice Scalia gave a general answer. “Just work hard and be very good,” he said.

But then he turned to a discussion of the student’s chances of obtaining the ultimate credential in American law, a clerkship with a Supreme Court justice. Not good, he said.

“By and large,” he said, “I’m going to be picking from the law schools that basically are the hardest to get into. They admit the best and the brightest, and they may not teach very well, but you can’t make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. If they come in the best and the brightest, they’re probably going to leave the best and the brightest, O.K.?”

The data bear out the hard truth the justice delivered.

Over the last six years, the justices have hired about 220 law clerks. Almost half went to Harvard or Yale. Chicago, Stanford, Virginia and Columbia collectively accounted for 50 others. No one from Washington College of Law made the cut.

Justice Scalia said he could think of one sort-of exception to his rule favoring the elite schools.

“One of my former clerks whom I am the most proud of now sits on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals” in Cincinnati, the justice said, referring to Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton. But Justice Scalia explained that Mr. Sutton had been hired by Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. after his retirement and then helped out in Justice Scalia’s chambers.

“I wouldn’t have hired Jeff Sutton,” Justice Scalia said. “For God’s sake, he went to Ohio State! And he’s one of the very best law clerks I ever had.”