Did Arlen Specter ever apologize to Anita Hill?

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Hours after former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's death was made public, word went around suggesting that he had quietly, belatedly repented for one of his most notorious moments -- serving, back in 1991, as Anita Hill's chief inquisitor and then voting to confirm Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. "Years after Thomas hearing, Specter felt badly about how he had treated Anita Hill (see video below), and sought my help in arranging a reconciliation," wrote Robert Reich, in a widely circulated tweet.

But was there any such "reconciliation," or better yet, apology? After all, for decades after the event Specter had firmly refused to apologize publicly for gleefully grilling Hill, accusing her of "flat-out perjury" and telling the press that Hill's "credibility has been demolished."

"As far as I know there was no reconciliation," Reich clarified in an email. "He expressed to me, one evening when we were having dinner together, his wish for there to be one."

Specter never came anywhere close to expressing that regret in public, though he once said that not a week went by without him being asked about Hill, and he even included her name in the subtitle of his 2000 memoir, "Passion for Truth."

I made Clarence Thomas laugh

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 19:00:00 +0000

When former Supreme Court law clerk Edward Lazarus published "Closed Chambers: The First Eyewitness Account of the Epic Struggles Inside the Supreme Court" in 1998, curious readers bought the book in droves to find out what really happens behind the scenes at the nation’s highest court. The law clerk community, however, went nuts. Claiming that Lazarus had breached his confidentiality obligations to the Court, critics called his actions “wrong,” “offensive” and a “betrayal.” One prominent sitting judge who previously clerked at the Court argued that Lazarus had violated several canons of the Supreme Court Clerk Code of Conduct as well as “the bond of loyalty to his Justice, the other Justices, and his fellow clerks.” Charges like this are enough to make any former law clerk hesitate to say just about anything about his or her time working at the marble palace.

On the other hand, the temptation to talk is strong. Whenever anyone finds out that I clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the 1998-1999 term — whether it be a student, a newly made friend or just some random stranger that I’ve accosted on the street or in the men’s room — they inevitably want to hear about my experiences. What was it like working there? Was Justice Ginsburg nice? Is it true that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor made her clerks do aerobics? What does it feel like to sit shirtless in the chief justice’s chair screeching “Order in the Court” after four margaritas?

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Did Arlen Specter ever apologize to Anita Hill?

I made Clarence Thomas laugh