Peter Savodnik:

But Chua’s Yale Law mentees aren’t just Republicans. They come from both sides of the political aisle and include the progressive reporter Ronan Farrowand Democratic congresswoman-elect Maggie Goodlander, who’s married to Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan. Chua has also taught the Mozilla Foundation’s executive director, Nabiha Syed, and Usha Chilukuri, who became Usha Vance, and sat in the front of the class while her future husband sat in the back. Chua’s classes were always oversubscribed, several sources told me. There was always a line of students waiting to speak with her at her office, on the third floor of the Sterling Law Building, which was built in 1931 and is meant to look like it was built in 1131.

“She helped create the origin story for the person who’s the future vice president of the United States,” a former student told The Free Press. “That’s classic Amy Chua.”

“It’s across the board—left wing, right wing,” Chua said of the students she’s advised. “I get a lot of immigrants.” She said she is also close with federal judges and Supreme Court justices of all political stripes. That includes the conservative Brett Kavanaugh, who Chua helped 10 of her students—eight of whom were women—land clerkships with. As well as Sonia Sotomayor, who has been dubbed the Court’s “most liberal” justice and attended the Washington, D.C., book party for Chua’s first novel, The Golden Gate.

“She has become the most important adviser and mentor of students at the Yale Law School in the entire time that I’ve been on the faculty, which is going on half a century,” said Kronman, a lifelong Democrat.