Louisiana Solicitor Common and former Alito clerk Ben Aguiñaga has a new piece exploding the widespread “media smear” of Justice Samuel Alito as “sad,” “aggrieved,” and “wronged.” He doesn’t hyperlink to something — why carry receipts when calling out a supposedly huge media conspiracy? — however he’s presumably responding to Joan Biskupic’s December CNN article describing Alito as an “sad” winner. Which was itself a continuation of a 2022 Slate piece by Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern questioning why he’s perpetually livid about the whole lot. So, regardless of failing to indicate his work, Aguiñaga’s not incorrect in regards to the basic notion.
Aguiñaga’s response? Alito eats Campbell’s soup and doesn’t make his clerks work weekends. Case closed, libs!
However earlier than we get to the substance — a phrase I’m utilizing generously right here — it’s price noting that Aguiñaga is Louisiana’s Solicitor Common and has a case earlier than the Supreme Court docket asking the justices to make it more durable for Black voters to elect representatives of their alternative. The conservative majority — together with Alito — appear ready to kick the Voting Rights Act in the genitals, so it’s not as if he wants a fawning tribute to affect the choice. That stated, a man with issues actively pending earlier than a justice he’s publicly fellating in a Fox Information article isn’t a really perfect search for the justice system.
Critics of Supreme Court docket justices often resort to unfair caricatures of these justices that, the critics hope, will generate clicks and likes.
“Clicks and likes?” My brother in Christ, what precisely do you assume YOU’RE doing? A puff piece in Fox Information hinting at a liberal media smear marketing campaign? I’ll assure that drives extra numbers than an extended type CNN submit the week between Christmas and New Yr’s. Even when it doesn’t, it chases the one like and click on it seeks from its viewers of 1.
The entire train reeks of the Trump playbook, the place everybody from CEOs to Nobel laureates heap reward on the boss. Trump’s televised cupboard conferences really feel like North Korean media as of late. Alito has exhibited terminal Fox News brain for years, so if somebody needed to get a complimentary message to the justice, Fox Information can be a logical place to go. Has Alito turn into as cooked because the forty seventh President? Attention-grabbing query. As Trump may say, “many individuals are asking.”
Remarkably, Aguiñaga doesn’t even tackle the precise criticism it units out to rebut. Reporters on the Supreme Court docket beat level out that Alito is more and more snippy at oral argument and snarling in writing. Aguiñaga’s response that Alito is… good to his clerks.
Some jurists are reputed to be harsh taskmasters. Not Justice Alito. Not solely did he lighten our hundreds in any respect prices, however he additionally by no means raised his voice or directed displeasure towards us. That isn’t as a result of we have been good — one time I needed to apologize for handing over a memo a day late, however he didn’t bat an eye fixed. On the contrary, the justice took each alternative he may to encourage us. I keep in mind one significantly lengthy memo battle that we fought and received. He may have walked off with the victory. However as a substitute, he took time to offer me a considerate thanks observe for my help.
Yeesh. At any time when somebody tries to launder Clarence Thomas’s popularity, they no less than carry up how he is aware of the identify of each janitor on employees. Alito simply will get an prolonged anecdote dump about being cool with the Federalist Society sycophants he hand-picks as his private assistants. Is the authorized career so damaged that “not a monster to work for” is a glowing praise?
Sure, it’s. However I digress.
Being nice to individuals who work immediately for him has little bearing on whether or not he’s consumed with rage at everybody else. There’s nothing mutually unique about politely asking a clerk about weekend plans on Friday AND flying insurrectionist flags at your home on Saturday. As another former Alito clerk noted when distancing herself from her former boss over the flag enterprise: you may imagine somebody is personally honorable whereas recognizing that their conduct has turn into indefensible.
Magda Goebbels made glorious strudel, as they are saying. Which isn’t to say Alito matches up with ol’ Magda, as a lot as a reminder that anecdotes about non-public kindnesses don’t make somebody an sincere dealer. In some instances, being good to the folks you work together with immediately goes hand in hand with being dismissive and even merciless to the folks you don’t. It’s ideally suited to be good on a regular basis, however given a alternative, I’d relatively a justice run their clerks by the Biglaw sweatshop wringer and nonetheless imagine within the Fourteenth Modification.
Oh, and Alito is wise too!
The clerkship with Justice Alito was surreal in lots of anticipated methods. For instance, the justice is extremely good. That’s readily obvious from any opinion he writes or oral argument wherein he grills counsel. So, too, behind the scenes: On a couple of event, electronic mail chatter from him would go quiet, after which a flood of completely cited draft opinions would come streaming in. He didn’t want us.
Which, once more, veers from the unique level. However typically you may be taught one thing when somebody retains redirecting like this. Is Aguiñaga simply making an attempt to inform Alito that he actually is a phenomenal and distinctive snowflake who shouldn’t retire simply because the haters have gotten him down? It will clarify why Aguiñaga hears “Alito is sad at work” and replies with “he’s such a superb humanitarian!” It’s not about Alito’s temper at work, it’s about girding him to stay it out. Simply spitballing right here, however possibly stick it out no less than lengthy sufficient for Aguiñaga to construct a resume that would fill that seat?
Anyway, this entire kerfuffle is about Alito being fairly clearly aggravated in all of the methods detailed within the Biskupic article, and the explanation why — for my cash — was pegged by Mark Joseph Stern again in 2022:
My idea of the case is actually that they watched for many years whereas the courtroom was center-right or average, or often handed down liberal rulings, and the nation largely accepted these choices. The authorized institution accepted them. There was not a name usually to develop the courtroom, and the courtroom’s approval scores remained excessive. I feel Alito and Thomas really feel like they’ve now received honest and sq., they’re within the driver’s seat, they’re issuing the entire choices that they assume are proper, that they imagine are definitely no extra radical than same-sex marriage or abortion, and abruptly their approval ranking is plummeting.
When the Warren Court docket took unpopular stands, the general public roughly thought the justices have been taking principled stances. When Alito reverse engineers an assault on half a century of precedent, the general public roughly sees it as a cynical energy play. The Court docket’s conservatives thought they’d take down the world the Warren Court docket constructed and be greeted as liberators — to borrow from Dick Cheney — and are at present studying the identical lesson Cheney did.
Possibly he simply wants a trip. Maybe some billionaire can offer him a luxury trip the place he can sit again, fly some flags, and calm down.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Legislation and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be happy to email any suggestions, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky in the event you’re excited about regulation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
