Hillbilly Elegy

feeder judge carries certain risks—if
you win the game, you’re halfway to the
chambers of the nation’s highest court; if
you lose, you’re stuck without a
clerkship. Sprinkled on top of these
factors is the reality that you work
closely with these judges. And no one
wants to waste a year getting berated by
an asshole in black robes.
There’s no database that spits out
this information, no central source that
tells you which judges are nice, which
judges send people to the Supreme
Court, and which type of work—trial or
appellate—you want to do. In fact, it’s
considered almost unseemly to talk
about these things. How do you ask a