MyDD has a fantastic post today about the National Democratic Law Students Council (NDLSC). NDLSC is an organization of law school students of Democratic stripes. It's a bit of a cross between the College Democrats and the National Democratic Lawyers Council, a subgroup of the Democratic National Committee. The founding conference of NDLSC was held this weekend at Harvard Law School, and I unforunately had to miss it.
In no small part the group owes its existence to the imagination and effort of David Burd, a third-year law student at Harvard Law School. Burd is also the founder of DL21C Boston, a local group which holds events for young Democrats. I've had many opportunities to work with him personally, and he is an exemplary leader. He should be seriously commended for his role in building a network for left-leaning law school students. Law school students are not just another interest group within the Democratic party. As MyDD points out, they can serve crucial roles in election protection and other related activities.
Far more importantly, law school students are at an important nexus within the judiciary: they edit law review articles and serve as clerks for federal and state judges. As such they play a reasonably major role in shaping jurisprudence. They are at least on a par with legislative staff in shaping policy and attitudes about policy.
The conservative movement, through the Federalist Society, has developed an intricate system of patronage for conservative law school students. Conservative federal judges will sometimes make participation in the Federalist Society a requirement for their clerks. No doubt most of the federal dollars paid to federal clerks would reach conservative law school students anyway; these kinds of requirements merely add clout and influence to the Federalist Society. The quasi-mandatory nature of membership in the Federalist Society among conservative law school students more tightly integrates promising scholars with the conservative movement. Moreover, the patronage system provides incentives for moderate to become part of the conservative movement.
The NDLSC and a related organization, the American Constitution Society, are forming the left's answer to the Federalist Society. We have yet to see whether the NDLSC and ACS will foment a patronage system like the Federalist Society, or even whether such a system would be appropriate and ethical for left-leaning judges. However, the importance of the two groups in facilitating networking and idea sharing among left-leaning law students cannot be overstated.
