4.2.12 WC: 191694 My Year of Clerking For Justice Goldberg Justice Arthur Goldberg was a man of action. Before being nominated at age 54 to the Supreme Court by President John F. Kennedy, Goldberg had accomplished an enormous amount. Unlike most of the current justices, he would have been in the history books even had he never served on the High Court. Arthur Goldberg helped establish the profession of labor law. He represented the most important labor unions in the country. He helped merge the American Federation of Labor (AFL) with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). He helped rid unions of communist influence. He argued some of the most significant cases before the Supreme Court and other courts, including the Steel Seizure Case of 1951. He was, perhaps the most successful Secretary of Labor in history, settling one strike after another and being recognized as a legendary mediator. The Supreme Court is not a place of action, it is an institution of reaction—to cases and controversies generated by others. It is a place of thoughtful, often solitary, meditation and research. Justice Goldberg was used to working with many people. He was accustomed to crisis. His phone had always rung. When he arrived at the Supreme Court, as he once summarized the situation, “my phone never rings.” The High Court is the loneliest of institutions. As Justice Brandeis once put it, “here we do our own work.” The Justices only occassionally interact: on the bench, in the weekly, somewhat formal, conference; and in informal one-on-one meetings, which were rare then and even rarer today. It is fair to say that Justice Goldberg was somewhat lonely, often restless and craved the active life he had left behind. This is not to say that Justice Goldberg was not a serious intellectual. He was. He was also one of the smartest justices in history. He loved the Supreme Court. He loved the law. He loved having intense discussions with his law clerks about jurisprudence and the role of t