It’s interesting to me that, as Todd Peppers says, he “ha[s] worried less about low response rates than responses from law clerks who downplay their job responsibilities while exaggerating their employer’s intellectual abilities and moral virtues.” Certainly that’s a problem for survey research, not just surveys of Supreme Court law clerks, but in general. One challenge of surveys is that many people won’t participate. Another challenge is that people who do participate may not give objective responses.
It’s a problem faced both by academics and by journalists. Books like The Brethren and Closed Chambers were criticized as based on information from law clerks who allegedly exaggerated their roles. Now Todd expresses concern that law clerks may have understated their roles. Both cases lead me to question whether maybe we should be trying to find other ways to gather information than surveying law clerks.
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