Just watched some guy named Jay Jorgensen on CNN's Daybreak. His job? Spinning Scalito as a "mainstream" conservative. I wondered who this guy was and why I was waking up to his lies. So, I decided to check out his resume at his law firm:
EducationBYU undergrand AND BYU law? Hmm. What can we learn from BYU? From the Clark Memorandum, Spring 1999 (BYU Law School publication) (PDF):
- Brigham Young University - J. Reuben Clark Law School (J.D., 1997, summa cum laude)
- Brigham Young University (B.A., 1994)
JAY T. JORGENSEN is a partner and litigator in the Washington, D.C., office. His practice involves representing individuals and corporations in all phases of complex civil and criminal litigation. Mr. Jorgensen has represented pharmaceutical and food production companies in criminal and qui tam cases at every stage of development, from undercover and internal investigations to grand jury proceedings to trial. Mr. Jorgensen's practice has also included civil and criminal appeals for individuals and businesses before numerous federal circuit courts and the United States Supreme Court.
Mr. Jorgensen joined the Washington, D.C., office in 2000 following a Supreme Court clerkship with Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, October 1999 Term and with the Honorable Samuel A. Alito, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Besides the influence of Lee, Jorgensen's desire to "have some spiritual grounding in the law" helped him choose BYU's Law School. "My own personal experience shows me that law school tends by its very nature to invite people to rely on their own reasoning and not on what I would call the Spirit," he says. "I thought I would get that at the J. Reuben Clark Law School - and, indeed, I did."Putting God into law isn't mainstream Jay, it's unamerican. Reason used to be one of the few things that brought us together as a nation. Maybe Jay spent too much time with Ken Starr. Again from the Clark Memorandum, Fall 1996 (PDF):
This past summer, Jay worked in the Washington, d.c., office of Kirkland & Ellis, where he had the opportunity to become acquainted with former Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr. General Starr would occasionally spend time with Kirkland & Ellis' law clerks discussing his litigation background. This experience confirmed Jay's desire to seek a litigation and appellate practice after his clerkship. He said that he pursued his judicial clerkship because it "seemed like a natural way to continue building on the litigation and appellate skills taught in law school."Ken Starr and Scalito. This guy loved Scalito so much he got his BYU law school cronies to help get him a clerkship with Scalito. I don't think that this makes him all that qualified to spin on my TV at 6:50 AM. Maybe it's because of the paper he authored for the Federalist Society (PDF):
After reading several Third Circuit opinions, Jay became particularly interested in working for Judge Alito. "I was impressed by several opinions [Judge Alito] authored, and several professors and practitioners recommended I apply to him," he said. Jay credits his success in obtaining his judicial clerkship to the Law School's faculty and to many members of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society who encouraged him to apply for a judicial clerkship, shared information about particular judges, advised him about application procedures, and recommended him to Judge Alito.
PRECEDENT FROM THE CONFIRMATION HEARINGS OF RUTH BADER GINSBURG FOR THE CONDUCT OF JUDICIAL NOMINEESOh that line of thought sounds familiar, where have I heard that before? The Roberts hearings perhaps?
And just who are the other memebers of the Federalist Society? Why Robert Bork! And Justice Scalia! And Ken Starr! And John Ashcroft! And Orrin Hatch!
This guy is nothing more than a very radical right wing partisan hack who wants to undermine our separation of Church and State and should be identifed as such, not just as some simple "clerk" of Scalito.
UPDATE 1: Kelly Wallace just used a clip of this hack in her package piece on Scalito. This partisan hack isn't qualified to tell America whether Scalito leaves his religion at home, particularly when it's the same guy who told his own law school magazine that he wants more "Spirit" in the law.
