Alito hires Adam Ciongoli aid to Ashcroft

[Flabbergasted]

High Court's Newbie Rounds the Learning Curve

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/21/AR2006022101659.html

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, February 22, 2006; Page A02

It was Samuel Alito's first day of school yesterday, and the new Supreme Court justice demonstrated himself to be a precocious, if sometimes too enthusiastic, pupil.

snip

.....The eight questions he asked -- on the finer points of the Clean Water Act and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission -- put him on course to surpass within days the total number of questions Justice Clarence Thomas has asked in 15 years.

snip

The new student had some awkward moments as he adjusted to his surroundings. He tried to talk at the same time as 85-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens, then quickly backed down. He continued the questioning of a government lawyer after the time for the argument had expired. And, in his haste to depart the chamber, he forgot the rules of seniority and stepped in front of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; the 72-year-old Clinton appointee was uninjured

snip

The high court has a new associate justice -- but Alito is not preparing for a long apprenticeship. He sent a bold signal in his hiring of law clerks: One, Adam Ciongoli, was an aide to former attorney general John Ashcroft and helped design administration policy on military tribunals and terrorism detainees. And the court's decision yesterday to hear a case about "partial birth" abortion will put Alito at the center of a dispute in which his predecessor, Sandra Day O'Connor, cast the deciding vote

[joemurphy]

1. Thank you, Gang of 14.