As they enter their second term, the Supreme Court's two newest justices have decided, at least temporarily, to stick with the Court's clerk-pooling arrangement, despite concerns that it gives law clerks too much power.
In brief interviews in recent weeks, both Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito Jr. said they will stay in the "cert pool," as it is called, for the current term.
Roberts said he will participate on a "year-to-year basis," and Alito said the same; both indicated they are still weighing the issues that have been raised. But Alito said that during his first term it was apparent to him that certiorari petitions need to be read closely to determine if they are worth granting -- suggesting some need for pooling the workload.
The arrangement, devised in 1972, radically changed what happens when a petition for review or certiorari comes in to the Court. Instead of being reviewed separately by nine clerks and/or nine justices, it is scrutinized for the pool, presumably in greater depth, by one clerk, who then writes a memo for all the justices in the pool.