(Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
If she wanted to talk to us, she would always buzz us on her buzzer, like this weird intercom that we had. You know, if I hear a buzzer ever these days, still my heart rate goes up. You’re just sitting there, researching and then the thing goes BZZZZZZT! and it means there’s a justice of the Supreme Court who wants to ask you some hard questions about law.
— Professor Jay Wexler of Boston University School of Law, in comments given about what he experienced during his time clerking for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Wexler is the first legal scholar to study laughter at the Supreme Court. Watch the video below for insights from other Ginsburg clerks, like Judge Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court, Judge John Owens of the Ninth Circuit, and Dean Trevor Morrison of NYU School of Law.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.