Worst Supreme Court Decision

posted by Curt, on September 29, 2007 06:54 am

As my fellow 3Ls have been interviewing for clerkships this fall, I've talked to them about how their interviews went. It seems that judges vary quite a bit in their approach to interviewing potential clerks. For some, an interview is primarily a personality compatibility check--is this the type of person who I could work closely with for a year. For others, the interview is much more substantive: either with the purpose of checking logical reasoning ability or just to see whether the views of the clerk are in line with their own.

I heard that one judged asked his interviewee what she thought about the 9th Amendment and how Roberts' and Alito's nominations would impact the Court's approach to that amendment. But one question that I have heard that judges ask quite a few people is: what Supreme Court case do you most disagree with and why? It's an interesting question, and sounds like a good way for a judge to test both the logical reason skills and (perhaps) the ideological position of an applicant. So, I thought I would throw out a couple of possibilities:

Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005)

Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003)

My main problem with these cases is not the result. It's that I don't think that the reasoning employed by the Court was correct. I would welcome your thoughts--both as to my two selections and any that you have--as well.

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