An OBABL tipster has pointed out that we neglected to report that Jack L. White, a card carrying member of the NAACP, is a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.  Mr. White graduated from West Point in 1995 and Pepperdine University School of Law in 2003.  Before working at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, he clerked for the jurist during his tenure as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  White testified about this experience before the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Mr. Chairman, Senator Leahy and Members of the Committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Jack White. I am an Associate in the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. I am here today in support of the confirmation of Judge Alito, to be the next Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. I served as a law clerk for Judge Alito on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 2003 to 2004. 

To provide context for my comments, I would like to share some personal information about myself. I am the son of African-American parents who were born in the segregated south. Their respect for the recognition of civil liberties that have enabled them to succeed and raise principled children has inculcated the same respect in me. This respect has led me to become a member of the NAACP and the ACLU. The same respect for our freedoms encouraged me to serve our country on Active Duty as an officer in the United States Army, and I continue to serve as a Captain in the United States Army Reserve. I have also served as a minister in Savannah, Georgia. 

My first opportunity to meet Judge Alito introduced me to his diligence and sense of duty. The remainder of my interactions with him have verified my initial impressions. I met Judge Alito in his chambers a few weeks after the September 11, 2001 tragedy. As the Adjutant and a Company Commander in a Reserve Reception Battalion in Pasadena, California, I had difficulty getting authorization to travel to New Jersey for a job interview. Notwithstanding Judge Alito’s assurances that I did not need to travel to meet him face to face, as an ambitious law student, I was determined to do so. When I arrived in Newark, New Jersey, at the U.S. Post Office and Courthouse where Judge Alito’s chambers are located, he and the security guards were the only people there. It was a holiday, no clerks were working, no other employees in the building were working, but Judge Alito was steadily preparing for an upcoming sitting. Yet, he took the time to tell me how he prepared for oral arguments and what he required of his law clerks in contributing to the decision-making process. Then, he took the time to tour his chambers and the courthouse with me.

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