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Mike Davis ran his own law firm, but when he saw an opportunity to be a 39-year-old law clerk for the newly minted Justice Neil Gorsuch, he gleefully recounts firing everyone to go play Supreme Court fantasy camp. But it worked out for him as he transitioned to serving Senator Chuck Grassley on the Judiciary Committee where he complained about lawmakers asking judicial nominees under oath to confirm that they were not planning to overrule Brown v. Board.
Despite the fact that, to borrow from Ghostbusters, if someone asks you if you believe in Brown v. Board, you say, “YES!” it was a question that some of the Federalist Society’s key judicial nominees struggled to answer. Presumably they felt that answer might run counter to the oath they’d just taken.
But at the time, FedSoc loyalists told us we were all wrong about this. Davis was merely complaining that nominees should not testify their support or opposition to any specific precedent, these folks reasoned. The objection was that refusing to answer on the record about Brown — solely out of the nominee’s sense of judicial prudence, mind you — unfairly suggested that the whole enterprise was just a prelude to a broad assault on the Fourteenth Amendment.
That’s as the kids say, “how it started.” How’s it going?
So much to unpack…. He identifies an underclass, though resolving why this systemic underclass might exist isn’t on the table — just mass incarceration and vigilantism. Notably the “hard-working, law-abiding” folks are also part of the underclass in this model and he’s got no problem with that as long as they keep their heads down. And when did mass incarceration end outside of the fever dreams of wingnuts hoping to institute the Purge?
And yet, so very little to unpack.
Earlier: Asking About Brown v. Board Is ‘Gutter Politics,’ According To Senate Judiciary Official
Law Clerk Explains To Reporter That He Really Is Kind Of A Jerk
Originalists Do Not Think Segregation Was Unconstitutional, And Wish You’d Stop Bothering Them About It
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
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