Finally, Something Interesting in the Sotomayor Hearings

Tony Mauro at the National Law Journal has a brief update on the Sotomayor hearings.  Under questioning from Senator Specter, Judge Sotomayor indicated that she, like Justice Alito, would probably opt out of the Supreme Court's cert pool.  For nearly four decades the Supreme Court justices have "pooled" their clerks together for the purpose of summarizing and recommending action on petitions for certiorari.  The one-clerk summaries are then distributed to all the members of the pool.  Except for the clerks of Justices Stevens and Alito, all the other justices' clerks participate in the pool.

The use of the cert pool has led to concerns that inexperienced young clerks have too much influence on which cases the Court decides to take.  Judge Sotomayor's testimony is interesting because it suggests that there will soon be a third Supreme Court Justice who will opt out of the cert pool.