No reason to have anyone on the ground in Nigeria, for example, so we just have all our interns scrutinizing the precise wording of boiler-plate thank you letters. It seems Justice Alito has trampled on the rights of many Americans by writing thank you notes in which he pledges to uphold the trust placed in him. Not to worry, though, an NYU professor is reasonably certain this isn't a case of pledging votes.
Sending thank-you notes after judicial confirmations is relatively common, but Stephen Gillers, a law professor and ethics expert at NewYork University said the note's wording was surprisingly ambiguous for a letter from a Supreme Court justice. "It is inartful, it is clumsy, it is a poor choice of language, it is unfortunate, but I think we have to give Justice Alito the benefit of the doubt," Professor Gillers said.
