00:00Matt. Thank you. I mentioned this in the introduction, but I'm not sure we,
00:07somebody who can probably figure this out, I'm not sure it's ever happened in the history of
00:12our republic that within the last seven or eight years, you have two former attorneys general from
00:20the state of Missouri in the United States Senate in a confirmation hearing with four
00:25nominees for district court position that also served in that office in the last seven or eight
00:30years. So it's a pretty unique moment. And it also would be in a courthouse named after Tom
00:35Eagleton, who was an attorney general in Missouri and served in the United States Senate. So it's
00:39a pretty, it's a great day for, for all of you and your families. We're so glad that you could make
00:45it and share this really special experience. So maybe the most important question for all of you,
00:49just ask each, you know, answer separately. How great was it to work for Eric Schmidt?
00:55No, I'm joking. No, no, no, no. By the way, you can add that to augment that to any question
01:03that's asked if you choose, but I'm not, I'm not going to make you do that under oath, maybe,
01:08but I guess just to open it up for each one of you to answer, it's maybe a little bit of a different
01:15question that's often asked. Each one of you have, have practiced before judges, you've clerked for
01:21judges in sort of different capacities. What is one thing that you would take from that experience,
01:26whether it's before a judge or working from a judge that you saw a judge do that you would
01:31like to emulate now as you hopefully become a federal judge?
01:36I'll take on with some risk that first question before I dive into this one. And I will quote from
01:43now Solicitor General John Sauer that I love you both equally. It was great working for you both.
01:48He had a different answer once Senator Hawley left before the record.
01:53I have another mentor in the room, as I mentioned, Judge Grinder. And I will say just thinking back
01:58to seeing him presiding over appeals, he was tremendously gracious with the parties that
02:03appeared before him. He gave everyone an opportunity to address what he would see as the weaknesses
02:08and their arguments and was honest with them about that. And I think certainly the way that he
02:13approached the parties would be something I would hope to emulate.
02:18Senator Schmidt, you were the you were my favorite attorney general who I worked for in 2019.
02:24You know, one of the things I really appreciated working for both Chief Judge William Pryor and also
02:29Justice Thomas is just the humility that both of them brought to the bench. I mean, it wasn't,
02:34you know, it wasn't unusual for a judge, either them or, you know, some other judges in the building
02:38to kind of have an initial inclination of what the correct answer is going to be, and then change
02:44their minds as they're going through the process. And I think being able to being open to that sort
02:49of thing, being open to having your mind changed is a very valuable asset for a judge.
02:56Thank you, Senator Schmidt. And one of the things I loved the most while I was working for your office
03:02was the opportunity to be a part of the way that democracy works in this country. So in the state of
03:09Missouri, the people of the state of Missouri elect their representatives, then the General Assembly
03:14makes laws, and then our job is almost all those laws are challenged at one point or another. And it's
03:21our job in the Missouri Attorney General's Office to give those laws defense. And so it's, it is important
03:28as a role as, for instance, a public defender's role in the democratic process to protect and to defend
03:35those laws that are passed by the state, the people of the state of Missouri. As for things I learned
03:41from my judges, I think both of my judges, and I just want to talk about Judge Grunder as one thing
03:46that's coming to mind is that the way he went through very methodically the opinions that he would write
03:53and make sure that he wasn't skipping any steps was something that I thought was extremely valuable,
03:57because I think the most often when you see judges go off track, it's because they've skipped a step,
04:03and it's very easy to, when you skip a step in your analysis, it's easy to insert your own opinion
04:09here. And I think that that was one of the things I took from that clerkship is to never skip steps,
04:14and to always show your work to make sure that you're not going to be inserting your own opinion here.
04:18Thank you, Senator. I will say, given the team that you put together at the Attorney General's office,
04:28it was one of the seminal points in my career, not just because of the great team working for you
04:34and the great and working with the great team that we had, but also managing just some of the tremendous
04:38young lawyers that came up through that office. That's of course, as I'm sure you and Senator Hawley
04:44both know the office where Justice Clarence Thomas began his career under then Attorney General John
04:50Danforth. It's an amazing place. It's an amazing training ground for great lawyers. I'm proud to say
04:54that one of my current clerks, Tyler Dodd, will be leaving me in the next few months to join the
04:59Attorney General's office, and I expect that my other clerk, Clayton Watts, who's here today,
05:03will be joining that office after we're finished next year. So it's just a tremendous place to learn to
05:09practice law and to practice law long term as well. As far as what I've learned, I had the privilege,
05:14the great privilege of clerking for Judge Pasco M. Bowman II. The first thing I can say that he
05:24exemplified was collegiality. That was a time on the Eighth Circuit where there were a lot of Reagan
05:29appointees, including Judge Bowman. But you also had senior members of that court from as long ago as the
05:36Lyndon Baines Johnson administration, believe it or not. Senator Myron Bright was was a giant of that of that
05:42court for many years had been appointed by by LBJ and was one of Judge Bowman's greatest friends on the court
05:49and they agreed on virtually nothing legally. But they exemplified what someone said earlier about
05:57being able to disagree without being disagreeable. And that left an impression and I had I've had
06:03opportunities over the years to give presentations to young lawyers about how to approach trials or how
06:08to approach appeals. And that's one of the things I always mention is that you can't in the rough and
06:12tumble particularly of trial, you can't expect to always get along with opposing counsel. You have to
06:17zealously represent your client. But if you can, you should at least try. And before the Eighth Circuit
06:22and the courts of appeals, they expect their bars to be collegial and they and they respect that. And it's
06:27advantageous to your client to be that way as well. And the other thing was instinctual to him was a
06:35love for the rule of law and a respect for the rule of law. That was apparent to me from the beginning.
06:41I've had that experience in other capacities in my career as well. I talked about it my investiture
06:46ceremony almost four years ago now, some of the mentors I had during my career. One of those was Judge
06:52Raymond Grunder, who changed my life when he hired me as an assistant U.S. attorney when he was the
06:57United States attorney in St. Louis. He also had the good judgment to hire my wife as his first law
07:01clerk, not coincidentally. And Judge Grunder also represents that, the rule of law. He is the U.S.
07:10attorney and now for a judge for about 22 years. He's exemplified that. Another example would be Tom
07:17Dittmeyer, who as Judge Schmitt, I'm sorry, Senator Schmitt knows, is an institution in St. Louis.
07:25He was the United States attorney appointed under President Reagan and joined our team at the
07:31Attorney General's office, worked for Attorney General Schmitt with the cold case unit. And
07:36there's no one I know more that exemplifies the rule of law than Tom Dittmeyer, even when it was
07:41particularly, when it was not politically advantageous for him as U.S. attorney. He took some, made some
07:47risky decisions to ensure that the law was upheld. And those are the things that I've learned.
07:53Thank you. Thank you all. And you're all going to be great judges. So congratulations. Thanks.
07:57Thank you. Now, I gave Senator Kennedy an extra couple questions in the last round on condition
08:03to be nice, be nice to all of these folks. So with that, Senator Kennedy.
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