Must Be a Very Slow News Cycle
on Feb 19, 2006 at 11:57 am
OK, so it was strange enough when, last Wednesday, the Washington Post decided that Justice Alito’s hiring of former Ashcroft aide Adam Ciongoli was worthy of a full, section A news story. Now, not to be outdone, the New York Times follows up today with a story under the ominous headline “New Clerk for Alito Has a Long Paper Trail.”
Adam Liptak reports that the hiring of Ciongoli was “a bold decision,” and “a startling development” in the “world of clerkdom.”
Count me as decidedly unstartled. This is a “Sun Rises in the East This Morning” sort of story. Ciongoli is bright, experienced, presumably shares much of Alito’s conservative philosophy, and clerked for Alito in the past. Why wouldn’t Alito extend him an offer, particularly in the mdist of his first Term, when he understandably wants to hit the ground running (and not wait for his clerks to get up to speed)? Ciongoli’s experience at DOJ and at Time-Warner only make him more valuable than a just-out-of-law-school clerk, not less so: He’ll have a much richer set of experiences and perspectives on which to draw. And it’s not at all unheard-of for Justices to choose clerks with some experience after appellate clerkships.
There’s really no story here beyond the usual one-paragraph Underneath Their Robes blurb. Or is there? Am I missing something?
