One of the greatest challenges with judicial selection is knowing what a lawyer actually believes. How do you know what a lawyer really believes when he is always representing a client?
For sure, lawyers at firms are largely hired guns. They'll take whatever paying client comes through the door. Indeed, whenever a lawyer takes a case, he has plausible deniability: I zealously represented my client, without regard to whether I agreed with the cause. How, then, do you know what a lawyer really believes?
You cannot give any weight to clerkships. Those who seek to clerk on the Supreme Court can often fake their politics to get through the gates--and I'm not talking about so-called counter-clerks. Brass rings are neither red nor blue. Dana Remus clerked for Justice Alito, and then served as President Biden's White House Counsel. Eric Miller clerked for Judge Silberman and Justice Thomas, and was appointed by President Trump to the Ninth Circuit, yet he consistently votes opposite the conservatives on that court. There are many more such examples.
