pjmedia.com
Reading about the recent unpleasantness at Stanford Law School, with close-minded students angrily protesting and trying to shut down Judge Kyle Duncan, took me back to my own early days in law school, when I encountered a judge I thoroughly disagreed with: Stephen Reinhardt.
I was attending a public interview of Judge Reinhardt in which he discussed his judicial philosophy. At the time, I knew nothing about judicial philosophy—probably less than those Stanford students do. I didn’t know about originalism; I didn’t know about living constitutionalism. I didn’t know that judges and scholars vehemently debated their preferred methods. And I had no idea that Judge Reinhardt was an outlier in that debate.
I had only a vague sense that judges somehow applied laws to facts like we students did in class. So it was with great anticipation that I attended this event. It was my first chance to hear a judge talk about his trade.
The host asked Reinhardt how he went about deciding a case. He responded (I am paraphrasing here because my memory is not exact): “First, I ask my clerks to give me the briefs and any media coverage about the case. Then I ask myself ‘what would justice be in this case?’ And then I write the opinion to do justice.”
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