45 of Sonia Sotomayor's former clerks have signed onto a letter of recommendation for their former boss, sending it to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member Jeff Sessions, and other members of the committee.

In it, they refute some criticisms of Sotomayor that anonymous clerks (most of whom worked for other judges on the Second Circuit) leveled in Jeffrey Rosen's widely read New Republic piece on her--e.g. that she isn't intellectually qualified for the job, and that she's a bully: "As former law clerks to Judge Sotomayor, each of us can attest to her intellectual prowess.."; "She is a judge who is tough and fair, yet highly respectful of her colleagues in the judiciary (including those with whom she sometimes disagrees) and the litigants appearing before her." See the full letter, released today by the White House, below:



We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.