Lessons From [The Side Of] The Bench

Some of the most frequent questions I've received since finishing my federal district court clerkship involve how certain judges feel about specific parties or issues. In a political climate that often portrays the federal judiciary as a battleground for partisan politics rather than a bastion of neutrality, these questions are understandable. And in a world where legal disputes are more often litigated on paper before a judge rather than in person before a jury, it is understandable for clients and attorneys alike to question whether and to what extent they face institutional biases that might affect the outcome of their case.

It may sound unrealistic, but spending a year behind the chambers curtain taught me that those questions matter a lot less than one might think. Judges, of course, are humans capable of harboring internal biases just like the rest of us. But particularly at the federal district court level, judges make decisions under the constraint of legal