Hiring Partner Rejects Federalist Society Members

I came across an interesting piece from the New York Times (by way of ABAJournal.com) this morning about a hiring lawyer from Greenwich, CT, who was in charge of recommending associates and clerk candidates for his firm based on their judgment and personality. This lawyer wrote to the Ethicist and asked: "May I recommend not hiring someone solely because of his or her politics?" Surprisingly, the Ethicist says the lawyer may not. The gist of the explanation from the Ethicist: "I am tempted to believe that those whose politics differ from mine lack 'judgment and personality' and taste in clothes and finesse on the dance floor. But this proposition is unsupportable. As to judgment: politics is famously a subject about which honorable people differ"

An update to the original letter noted that the lawyer, "[b]elieving that all candidates were qualified, but able to hire only a few . . . , recommended rejecting each member of the Federalist Society." Isn't that enough to get your blood boiling early in the morning?

Please click here for the Times piece and here for the ABA's take on it. (Many interesting comments on ABAJournal.com.)