Janet Napolitano, Barack Obama’s pick for Homeland Security secretary, first came to Washington 17 years ago to represent Anita Hill during Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings.

In the film, Groundhog Day, the TV weatherman played by Bill Murray wakes up to the same day again and again.

In a Washington version of the film, the White House keeps nominating Steven G. Bradbury to run the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Robert A. Levy doesn’t own a gun, but he is at the heart of a Second Amendment case that the Supreme Court agreed to hear last week.

Levy, a millionaire and lawyer with lots of Washington connections, used his money to finance a challenge to the District of Columbia statute that prohibits the ownership of handguns.

The 31-year-old statute also places restricts on the possession of other firearms, including a requirement that the guns in homes be unloaded.

Membership in the Federalist Society, a group for conservative or libertarian law students and lawyers, has recently helped open doors to jobs in the federal government, especially the judiciary.

But given the Democratic Congress and other factors, Federalist Society membership, or even past Federalist Society membership, may not be the plus it was.

At least that’s what Rachel K. Paulose has alleged.

The recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Michael Mukasey to be U.S. attorney general might have passed for a meeting of the Yale Law School alumni association.

Mukasey, class of 1967, was introduced to the committee by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., also Yale Law class of ‘67.

While Supreme Court law clerks can now count on big signing bonuses after their year with the court, they can also count on good and powerful jobs in the government.

And as they rise to power in these jobs, they most likely find themselves working along side other former court law courts, fellow members of an elite club.

Connections count, and the Supreme Court connection counts a lot.