Justice Alito's Son Quits Gibson Dunn for Capitol Hill Job w/ Sen Portman, chair HS Cmte

[Panich52]

Legal Times:

Philip Alito, the son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr., has left Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to become a staff counsel to Republicans on a U.S. Senate investigative subcommittee.
The younger Alito, who clerked for Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2012 and 2013, worked as an associate at Gibson Dunn from the fall of 2013 until February. Gibson Dunn’s Washington hiring partner, Thomas Dupree Jr., declined to comment on Alito’s departure except to say, “Phil left the firm to accept a position with Senator [Rob] Portman. We wish him the very best.”
Portman is chairman of the permanent subcommittee on investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Justice Alito administered a ceremonial oath in 2011 to Portman, then a freshman Senator. In his new position, Alito’s name has appeared as a contact in correspondence from Portman, an Ohio Republican, to government agencies.
Alito, one of three counsels on the subcommittee, was identified as Portman’s contact in a March 24 letter from Portman and subcommittee ranking Democratic member Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, to the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Portman and McCaskill asked the commission about its low rate of collection of fines levied in enforcement actions. Similar letters went to other agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Alito's move drew criticism from American Enterprise Institute scholar Norman Ornstein, who tracks Congress and U.S. politics. "For a court that is struggling for tangible reasons not to be viewed as partisan like every other institution in Washington, I wish it was not so," Ornstein said.

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"We shouldn't condemn the children of public officials to a life of deep constraint," Ornstein said. "But given everything else, given that Justice Alito is consistently partisan, it's just another little chink out of the court's armor."

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In 1993, seven of the nine then-sitting justices signed an agreement stating they would not automatically recuse when a close family member is merely a member of a law firm that has a case before the court or was involved in a case at an earlier stage. Recusal is required only in special circumstances, they agreed, such as when the relative serves as lead counsel in a case or would lose income depending on the outcome of the case.
When Philip Alito was clerking, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg alluded to the agreement in a statement to The National Law Journal. "Justice Alito does subscribe to the policy that the court adopted some time ago (and has followed it with respect to his sister). The policy would apply to Philip if and when he is in practice." Justice Alito's sister Rosemary is a K&L Gates practice leader in Newark, N.J., in the firm's labor and employment group.

More
http://www.nationallawjournal.com/legaltimes/id=1202727526861/Justice-Alitos-Son-Quits-Gibson-Dunn-for-Capitol-Hill-Job?rss=rss_dc&slreturn=20150428104606



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