Sandwiched between cases Friday in federal court in Little Rock, U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky presided over a different kind of hearing in which college students participating in a state government internship program watched a sentencing hearing and then questioned the judge on a variety of topics related to his job.
After the sentencing hearing, Rudofsky spent about 40 minutes talking with participants in the state's MyARIntern program, describing the confirmation process that placed him on the federal bench and answering questions ranging from who his judicial heroes are to what his favorite part of his job is. The 47 students were on a field trip as part of a statewide public service intern program -- dubbed the MyARIntern Program -- which is a function the state's Department of Transformation and Shared Services
"The intent of the program is to offer college students exposure to public service and government for encouragement toward that field," said Jana Hiland, the program director and human resources director with the department. Hiland said the ultimate goal of the program is to interest college students in public service by providing exposure to the inner workings of government through paid summer internships.
On Friday, the students, who serve as interns in state government departments, such as the governor's office, Department of Human Services, and Department of Finance and Administration, visited the U.S. District Courthouse in Little Rock, as well as the state Supreme Court and other offices as part of the summer program's mission to educate its interns in the various functions of government and how different entities at different levels interact.
In Rudofsky's courtroom, the interns sat in on a lengthy and detailed sentencing hearing in which a Lonoke County man was sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison on a weapons charge as an armed career criminal.
After giving the group an overview of his education, experience and the route he took that led to his nomination to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump in 2019, the New York native and Harvard-educated jurist took questions for nearly a half-hour, clearly enjoying the back-and-forth discussion.
Rudofsky's judicial heroes, he said, are two U.S. Supreme Court justices who sit on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum: Justices Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan.
Of Thomas, a Supreme Court justice since 1991 following his nomination by former President George H.W. Bush, he said, "He is a very good and committed jurist ... committed to his way of judging regardless of the result in a particular case."
Rudofsky said he took a class taught by Kagan at Harvard Law School and said since that time he had always had a "great relationship" with the justice, who served as dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 until 2009 when she was named U.S. solicitor general by former President Barack Obama, who nominated her for the high court the following year.
"I think she kind of used me as kind of the token conservative in her class so we would often argue back and forth on issues of administrative law," he said. "She was a wonderful teacher, a wonderful dean but I think she used me in some sense to engage the class in a real discussion ... I also think she is very committed -- in a good way -- to her jurisprudential philosophy. She and I may disagree more than we don't but I think she does not care what the result is in a particular case. She does what she thinks the law requires and I admire that."
Asked his favorite part of the job, Rudofsky paused for a moment to consider the question, then said collaborating with his law clerks on the drafting of rulings by hashing out the issues and researching legal precedents is the part he enjoys the most.
"When we have meaty issues that are hard to figure out," he said, "I think it is kind of fun to go back and forth."
Rudofsky said he employs an open-door policy and encourages vigorous debate among his clerks in attempting to find the best way forward.
"I need to talk things out," he said. "I need to shoot ideas off of people, they come back and say this works or this doesn't work. When I was a practicing attorney that's always how it was and to me, that's always what our writing process tends to be like. ... I walk into their offices with issues I'm trying to figure out, they walk into my office with things I'm trying to figure out and to the extent there is fun in this job, the fun is really trying to figure out how to get to the right answer when there's a difficult problem."
Rudofsky said although some cases are easy, three-quarters of the cases that come across his docket "present at least one hard, debatable issue" that he said once decided still leave room for some doubt and further examination.
Then, going further, he addressed what he said is the hardest part of the job.
"The hardest part of the job and the only part of the job that I lose sleep over is what you just saw," Rudofsky said, referring the sentencing hearing that preceded the question and answer session. "That is incredibly difficult, incredibly emotionally draining, you literally have someone's life in your hands."
He said such decisions not only place the life of the defendant under the will of the judge, but also the lives of others including family members, past victims and their families, and potential future victims should a guilty defendant go on to commit more crimes. The intricacies in crafting a sentence that is -- to follow the legal sentencing framework that it be "sufficient but no more than necessary," to address the criminal behavior that brings defendant and judge together, to promote respect for the law and to provide deterrence to the defendant and to others -- is daunting, he said.
"You don't want to take away their freedom for a day more than you have to, right?" Rudofsky said. "That's a terrible, terrible thing, but you also don't want to have a situation where someone gets out earlier than they should, they haven't been rehabilitated and, God forbid, they kill someone or hurt someone or they hurt society. That's an incredibly tough thing to figure out and the truth is, there's no right answer."
Arkansas' Department of Transformation and Shared Services bills the MyARIntern Program as a tool to provide college students, recent college graduates and veterans with real-world experience in state government through paid internships in a variety of state government career fields. Hiland said those selected for the program, now in its second year, receive $12 an hour in compensation for working inside the state departments they are assigned to.