Apart from this potential criminal misconduct, the clerk- perk scandal renews persistent concerns about the degree to which the court s coziness with wealthy special interests influences its official actions. The justices recruit clerks while they are still in law school. Many leading law firms with a steady stream of business before the Supreme Court also pre-recruit these same students to go to work for them upon completing their clerkship.
Recruits often do a summer internship with their future employer prior to clerking.
Serious ethical and legal concerns arise when the employers that bestow such perks on clerks have business before the same court. Texas Supreme Court clerks exercise considerable influence over court business. Unlike most appellate courts, the Supreme Court permits briefing attorneys to sit in on its conference deliberations. Sometimes, briefing attorneys will be asked to make oral presentations or answer questions about the law or the facts during conference. Both the firm that subsidizes a court clerk, as well as the clerk who accepts such benefits, appear to violate the clear language of the Bribery and Corrupt Influence chapter of Texas penal code.