Ideology-Flexible Libs Forum

[Anonymous User]

I feel like the inverse of this question (ideology-flexible cons) gets asked a ton as there's more progressives applying than conservatives, but I was wondering which notable lib judges take on FedSoc-y applicants. The only way to really gauge this as it stands is which ones feed to conservative Justices (well really just Roberts), in which case we have Merrick / Sri / Katzmann, but there could be others who take on FedSoc types who just don't feed as much to conservative Justices (or any of the three preceding could be heavy on ACS / non-FedSoc but still feed to CJ). In any case, would be good to get a "bottoms-up" view of the scuttlebutt on this.

[Anonymous User]

I don't know enough about the general topic to say for sure but it's not a safe assumption that liberal judges who are sending clerks to Roberts (and even Kavanaugh to some extent) are sending conservative clerks their way. I know at least one of these recent clerks who went from one of the judges you mentioned to the Chief and that clerk is not conservative.

[Anonymous User]

OP here, totally agree it's a limited-usefulness heuristic because the Chief / other judges may higher opposite their ideological stripes. Was hoping for some on-the-ground applicants / clerks to chime in with more direct reports

[Anonymous User]

I believe that often one of Lucy Koh's three clerks often comes from FedSoc-friendly COA judges.

[Anonymous User]

OP here, totally agree it's a limited-usefulness heuristic because the Chief / other judges may higher opposite their ideological stripes. Was hoping for some on-the-ground applicants / clerks to chime in with more direct reports

There are some like Watford and Costa (and Sri who has hired conservatives in the past, he cares entirely about credentials and intellect), who I'm pretty sure don't care about ideology at all - but there is self-selection bias here. If you are a conservative with the credentials to clerk on the COA, why would you apply for positions that have much more competition when you can apply to a whole host of off-plan judges that would be a more pleasant chambers experience?

[Anonymous User]

OP here, totally agree it's a limited-usefulness heuristic because the Chief / other judges may higher opposite their ideological stripes. Was hoping for some on-the-ground applicants / clerks to chime in with more direct reports

There are some like Watford and Costa (and Sri who has hired conservatives in the past, he cares entirely about credentials and intellect), who I'm pretty sure don't care about ideology at all - but there is self-selection bias here. If you are a conservative with the credentials to clerk on the COA, why would you apply for positions that have much more competition when you can apply to a whole host of off-plan judges that would be a more pleasant chambers experience?

I can second that Watford doesn't seem to care about ideology when he hires, and he seems like he'd be a great boss for anyone. But the reality is that if you're conservative and you have the resume for Watford, you also have the resume for at least a half-dozen judges who have fed to Thomas, Alito, etc. (starting with Ikuta in the same courthouse, and moving up the feeder rankings from there). So I can't imagine many conservatives with feeder-level credentials are applying to him.

[Anonymous User]

Any views on Garland, Tatel, Fletcher, Katzmann, and/or Friedland re: accepting conservatives?

[Anonymous User]

No

Any views on Garland, Tatel, Fletcher, Katzmann, and/or Friedland re: accepting conservatives?

No conservative is ever going to be in the position of applying to those judges. Conservatives with ~feeder credentials are going to apply to judges their 1L year. If they don't get a conservative feeder (Wilkinson/Sutton/Pryor etc.), they will definitely get a conservative quasi feeder (like Ikuta) and/or an up-and-coming judge who hopes to be a feeder (Rao, Thapar, Bibas etc.). Almost nobody is going to turn down Ikuta or Thapar in the hopes of waiting a year for the outside chance at a Tatel clerkship, especially when they have just been shown they probobly don't have the grades for a top feeder.

[Anonymous User]

No

Any views on Garland, Tatel, Fletcher, Katzmann, and/or Friedland re: accepting conservatives?

No conservative is ever going to be in the position of applying to those judges. Conservatives with ~feeder credentials are going to apply to judges their 1L year. If they don't get a conservative feeder (Wilkinson/Sutton/Pryor etc.), they will definitely get a conservative quasi feeder (like Ikuta) and/or an up-and-coming judge who hopes to be a feeder (Rao, Thapar, Bibas etc.). Almost nobody is going to turn down Ikuta or Thapar in the hopes of waiting a year for the outside chance at a Tatel clerkship, especially when they have just been shown they probobly don't have the grades for a top feeder.

Is it really that far-fetched? I mean pardon my French but a lot of those off-plan conservative super feeders (idk if Katsas is on plan) are on circuits in fucksville. You’re telling me there’s no conservative who would give up Ikuta now to apply to libs (or on-plan conservatives like Griffith) later?

[nixy]

You think people are going to pass on clerking for a super feeder because they don’t want to be in Ohio?

[Anonymous User]

You think people are going to pass on clerking for a super feeder because they don’t want to be in Ohio?

Yeah, I could see that for various reasons (partner’s employment, professions network, plain preference), especially if a candidate has competitive credentials to try elsewhere

[lavarman84]

You think people are going to pass on clerking for a super feeder because they don’t want to be in Ohio?

LOL. Truth. I can't imagine passing on a Sutton clerkship because you aren't willing to spend a year in Columbus (which is a fine city).

[Anonymous User]

No

Any views on Garland, Tatel, Fletcher, Katzmann, and/or Friedland re: accepting conservatives?

No conservative is ever going to be in the position of applying to those judges. Conservatives with ~feeder credentials are going to apply to judges their 1L year. If they don't get a conservative feeder (Wilkinson/Sutton/Pryor etc.), they will definitely get a conservative quasi feeder (like Ikuta) and/or an up-and-coming judge who hopes to be a feeder (Rao, Thapar, Bibas etc.). Almost nobody is going to turn down Ikuta or Thapar in the hopes of waiting a year for the outside chance at a Tatel clerkship, especially when they have just been shown they probobly don't have the grades for a top feeder.

Is it really that far-fetched? I mean pardon my French but a lot of those off-plan conservative super feeders (idk if Katsas is on plan) are on circuits in fucksville. You’re telling me there’s no conservative who would give up Ikuta now to apply to libs (or on-plan conservatives like Griffith) later?

Previous anon. If they really care more about geography than feeder status, they are even more likely to choose Ikuta/Rao over waiting a year and hoping for Tatel.

[Anonymous User]

No

Any views on Garland, Tatel, Fletcher, Katzmann, and/or Friedland re: accepting conservatives?

No conservative is ever going to be in the position of applying to those judges. Conservatives with ~feeder credentials are going to apply to judges their 1L year. If they don't get a conservative feeder (Wilkinson/Sutton/Pryor etc.), they will definitely get a conservative quasi feeder (like Ikuta) and/or an up-and-coming judge who hopes to be a feeder (Rao, Thapar, Bibas etc.). Almost nobody is going to turn down Ikuta or Thapar in the hopes of waiting a year for the outside chance at a Tatel clerkship, especially when they have just been shown they probobly don't have the grades for a top feeder.

Is it really that far-fetched? I mean pardon my French but a lot of those off-plan conservative super feeders (idk if Katsas is on plan) are on circuits in fucksville. You’re telling me there’s no conservative who would give up Ikuta now to apply to libs (or on-plan conservatives like Griffith) later?

Lol at turning down a mega-feeder because they are in Charlottesville or whatever.

Also, most likely they would take a clerkship with Ikuta and then try to tack on a full-fledged feeder after. There is a reason people are doing combos like Newson > Katsas, or Thapar > Wilkinson, etc. (just made these up but have seen plenty of semi feeder + feeder double COA clerks at my school and in top DC firms)

[nixy]

You think people are going to pass on clerking for a super feeder because they don’t want to be in Ohio?

Yeah, I could see that for various reasons (partner’s employment, professions network, plain preference), especially if a candidate has competitive credentials to try elsewhere

If they're in that much demand, they can do what they like, but wrt the original point, I don't get why someone in that position would wait another year to try for a liberal feeder instead of focusing on the conservative feeders who aren't in Ohio. (But then, I also don't agree that a lot of feeders actually sit in fucksville.)