Mastodawn

Heidi Li Feldman Aug 11, 2023

U.S. #law schools should discourage students from applying for clerkships with #ClarenceThomas; faculty should refuse to recommend students for those clerkships; firms and other legal employers should refuse to hire people who have chosen to clerk for Thomas starting this year (when the large extent of his corruption became known). To do otherwise is to be complicit with Thomas’s unethical conduct. #LawFedi #LegalEthics #JudicialEthics

🎓 Doc Freemo

@heidilifeldman

I have no love for Thomas.. but no just ew no. Working for someone doesnt mean you should be an outcast for life... no lets stop with this petty nonsense. Focus on Thomas if you want to boycott someone.

OpenDNA⚙️Aug 11, 2023

@freemo @heidilifeldman Honestly? Knowing what we know now? Yeah, it should. It's like those who joined the Trump White House: literally everyone in the field knew it was a career-ender so only the stupid, corrupt, or morally bankrupt signed up. Republicans of intelligence or integrity blocked the transition team's phone number.

It's not like someone can hope to learn anything about jurisprudence from the man. It's clearly nothing more than an internship in partisan corruption.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

I hve no problem with you judging politicians by whatever standards you want.. but working people being denied jobs because of politicial associations.. absolutely not, disgusting.

@heidilifeldman

cui bono, baby.Aug 11, 2023

@freemo really? So you think KKK members should be hired at the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice?

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

@cuibonobaby How in the world did you get that from what I just said? Being in the KKK is not a political association.

cui bono, baby.Aug 11, 2023

@freemo Of course it's a political association.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

@cuibonobaby No, how is being in the KKK and an assocition with a political figure? It is an organization, not a person, it isnt a political party nor contain any politicians.

cui bono, baby.Aug 12, 2023

@freemo What difference does it make whether the association is with an individual or an organization? If you think the KKK doesn't contain any politicians you don't know much about the history of the KKK.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 12, 2023

@cuibonobaby I never said the issue was organization vs individual.. they arent a political party, they arent a political individual. They are neither. What they are is an organization whose purpose it is to harass minorities.

Aaron Moshiashwili Aug 12, 2023

@freemo @opendna @heidilifeldman so in your mind, hyperconnected lawyers who will get a half million dollar bonus just for that line on their resume are "working people"

And "don't work for obviously corrupt people" is "punish people for their political associations" in your mind. I guess you're saying that you automatically associate corruption with Thomas's political party?

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 12, 2023

They arent people who are working? The what now?

also no, I addressed your second point already. If they had inside information about corruption, then yes, you should hold them accountable. Now if your expecting them to act on corruption becoming publicly known, there is a formal system in place to investigate those claims and act on them. It is not an employees responsiblity to determine their bosses innocence or guilt, or to hold him accountable for it.

@opendna @heidilifeldman

Aaron Moshiashwili Aug 12, 2023

@freemo @opendna @heidilifeldman WOW. That's just... Wow.

"Tell me you've never worked in a competently managed professional workplace without saying..."

OpenDNA⚙️Aug 12, 2023

@freemo @heidilifeldman You're telling me that it is wrong to judge a candidate's moral integrity, for positions which require exceptional trust and professional ethics, and that it is wrong for people who suffer genuine persecution to refuse to associate with the people who spend their days making that persecution possible.

Thomas is both single most notorious example of public corruption in office today in America. His clerks are unfit for the profession. They can be carpenters or line cooks.

OpenDNA⚙️Aug 12, 2023

@freemo @heidilifeldman For every Thomas clerk employed in law, there are thousands of more ethical young attorneys who will not find employment in the field.

What you are arguing for is rewarding corruption above integrity, nepotism above merit, and the politics of bigotry above tolerance.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 12, 2023

@opendna @[email protected] thats not what im arguing for.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 12, 2023

@opendna @heidilifeldman

No that is not what im saying.

CowBlizzard Aug 11, 2023

@freemo @heidilifeldman yes it should follow you for life. You make your choice to work with a corrupt Justice, it says all we need to know about your character.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

Well lets hope people boycott you and refuse to ever hire you again for having such fascist views. Maybe you will learn something.

@heidilifeldman

CowBlizzard Aug 11, 2023

@freemo @heidilifeldman ok.

Andrew Prillaman Aug 11, 2023

@freemo @heidilifeldman

They said "starting this year". Anyone who worked for him in the past is fine, but people choosing to work for him are most certainly aware of the reporting about him.

Personally I think that's generous. It's unlikely that his clerks were totally unaware of how he was operating.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

@ThatPrilla @heidilifeldman

Its not about awareness. People need to feed their families, or are trying to get training so they can get hired.

Not to mention that forcing him to not have a staff isnt going to solve a damn thing, if anything will just make him worse not better.

Andrew Prillaman Aug 11, 2023

@freemo @heidilifeldman

Since 2020 he has had 18 law clerks.

6 from Yale, 5 from Chicago, 3 from Harvard, and 1 each from NYU, Virginia, George Mason, and Alabama.

Each class of 37 law clerks (4 per justice 5 for chief justice) is on a path towards being able to wield power and influence that will impact every person living in the United States.

These are future federal judges, attorneys general, state solicitors, state supreme court justices, politicians, lawyers and activists.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

Yes they are, and who they worked for should not change that. Now if they actively did anything on their own then by all means hold it against them. Thomas's decisions arent their own, nor do they necessarily have the luxury to quit.

@heidilifeldman

Andrew Prillaman Aug 11, 2023

@freemo @heidilifeldman

None of these folks would have trouble getting a job with likely better pay.

With very few exceptions, they have a previous clerkship with a federal judge.

By helping Thomas justify his opinions, they literally further his potentially corrupt influence.

I simply do not understand this desire to coddle people who are supposed to be the future best and brightest of the legal profession and refuse to hold them accountable.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

Regardless, even if they could find a job, no this is wrong without actively reviewing their specific actions. They may very well be offering dissenting opinions to Thomas and very much trying to push him the opposite direction.

These sort of idiotic blanket boycots on people simply by association, particularly employment, is not the way to go on any level.

@heidilifeldman

Andrew Prillaman Aug 11, 2023

@freemo @heidilifeldman

That might be a compelling argument in the case of a justice who wasn't tainted by the appearance of corruption.

Corruption isn't something you sway with a slick legal argument. Corruption dictates the outcome and finds justification after the fact.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

For the corruption component I see two sides... Before the corruption was exposed they may not have known, so i wont hold that against them unless specific evidence surfaces they knew... After the corruption was exposed its not their responsibility to judge or investigate if the corruption is legitimate. There are mechanisms in place for that already and that is where that should be decided.

@heidilifeldman

cui bono, baby.Aug 11, 2023

@freemo Keep moving those goalposts.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

@cuibonobaby LOL as if adapting ones position when new information is learned is a bad thing.

cui bono, baby.Aug 11, 2023

@freemo what new information did you lthat caused you to change your position? In fact it appears like you couldn't defend your first position so you just adopted another one.

cui bono, baby.Aug 11, 2023

@freemo *did you learn.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

How has my original position changed? huh

The new information I responded to was the assertion that they could probably find new jobs easily enough. My original position never asserted that them being unable to find new work is the only reason that would justify them being a clerk, so how did I move the goalposts?

cui bono, baby.Aug 11, 2023

@freemo I stand corrected. You didn't change your original position.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

@cuibonobaby appreciate the intellectual honesty on that reply, thanks.

Matt Aug 11, 2023

@freemo @ThatPrilla @heidilifeldman this idea that Supreme Court clerks from elite law schools are pursuing and accepting clerkships with Thomas to “feed their families” is hilariously out of touch with reality. They have other options, all of which are lucrative.

🎓 Doc Freemo

🇳🇱Aug 11, 2023

You: Hahaha they can get other jobs and feed their family

Also you: We need to boycott them and make sure they cant get any jobs!

@ThatPrilla @heidilifeldman

Andrew Prillaman Aug 11, 2023

@freemo @MattFerrel @heidilifeldman

No one called for anyone who ever worked for him in the past to be blacklisted. (I did note that it's hard to believe they weren't aware of his activities).

Everyone who was working for him at the time or in the future has an ethical choice to make.