U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia respects Ohio Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton but apparently not the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

According to The New York Times' Adam Liptak, Scalia's colorful talk at the American University Washington College of Law last month focused on law graduates who get prestigious jobs as U.S. Supreme Court clerks.

"By and large," Scalia said, "I'm going to be picking from the law schools that, basically, are the hardest to get into. They admit the best and the brightest, and they may not teach very well, but you can't make a sow's ear out of a silk purse. If they come in the best and the brightest, they're probably going to leave the best and the brightest, OK?"

Clerks hired by the court often are from Harvard or Yale, Chicago, Stanford, Virginia and Columbia, Liptak wrote.

However, Scalia noted one exception to the cool-school rule: Sutton, Ohio's former state solicitor and now a judge with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"I wouldn't have hired Jeff Sutton," Justice Scalia said. "For God's sake, he went to Ohio State! And he's one of the very best law clerks I ever had."

-- Alan Johnson ajohnson@dispatch.com