Courts

Federal Clerkship Academy Is Back, This Time Without Loyalty Pledge

No blood oaths this time, we promise.

We led with our chin, and we got hit. It was a self-inflicted wound. The language that was in the original application was totally unnecessary and was just a misguided attempt to protect the reputations of the people who were involved. But it was silly, and we shouldn’t have done it. It was never our intention to have some kind of loyalty oath. People do not have to be loyal to the Heritage Foundation.

— John Malcolm, a Heritage Foundation official, commenting on some of the changes that have been made to the Foundation’s federal judicial clerkship academy, which was revived a month after the original program was canceled in the wake of criticism.


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.