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socraticmethodman

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Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by socraticmethodman » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:43 pm

I recently started thinking about the number of minorities that I have obtained SCOTUS Clerkships. I searched TLS and could not find anything, however, I did find a website that discussed the topic briefly.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/colloq3.htm

Thoughts?

I don't want this to turn into a race war, so please keep your thoughts/comments civil.

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Moxie

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Re: Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by Moxie » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:15 pm

This is old news. Justice Thomas made some statements this past year about how Supreme Court Justices primarily hire from Yale and Harvard.

Regarding racial diversity: the Justices have power to hire whoever they want. While there aren't many URMs who become SCOTUS, it's up to the Justices, and no one is going to compel them to hire certain demographics. (I say this as an AA that would cut off body parts to be a SCOTUS clerk).

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Wholigan

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Re: Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by Wholigan » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:16 pm

What is the question, if there is diversity, or if there should be more? Looking quickly it seems like women are still a minority, making up 10 of 38 clerks last term, and 13 this term. I don't know about the racial makeup, probably tougher to find out.

socraticmethodman

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Re: Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by socraticmethodman » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:23 pm

I guess my question is if there is diversity. I'm not posting the article as new news, I only posted it because it was the only thing I could find discussing minorities and SCOTUS Clerkships.

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Wholigan

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Re: Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by Wholigan » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:36 pm

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Last edited by Wholigan on Fri Mar 25, 2011 10:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:36 pm

i'm a minority, but talking about "diversity" makes me very very uncomfortable within the context of freaking supreme court clerkships. SCOTUS clerkships should be limited to the most objectively brilliant law students.

if that means only a bunch of white people from yale and harvard clerk every year, so what? some things have to be based on objective brilliance and merit alone. otherwise we make it impossible for any minority to reach the greatest heights of the profession without having their achievements tainted by the proposition that they needed affirmative action.

for stuff like getting into schools or run of the mill jobs, ect, i'm ambivalent. but even juxtaposing something like "scotus clerkship" with "diversity" freaks me out.

notanumber

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Re: Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by notanumber » Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:44 pm

One thing that I've wondered is how dramatically your odds of obtaining feeder/SCOTUS clerkships go up if you join the FedSoc at YHS. . . .

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Wholigan

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Re: Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by Wholigan » Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:51 pm

notanumber wrote:One thing that I've wondered is how dramatically your odds of obtaining feeder/SCOTUS clerkships go up if you join the FedSoc at YHS. . . .
I don't know.. wouldn't FecSoc disqualify you from working for at least as many justices as it would give you a bump for? Besides, you can work for Thomas if you join FedSoc and graduate #1 at a random T1/T2

notanumber

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Re: Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by notanumber » Fri Mar 25, 2011 4:00 pm

Wholigan wrote:
notanumber wrote:One thing that I've wondered is how dramatically your odds of obtaining feeder/SCOTUS clerkships go up if you join the FedSoc at YHS. . . .
I don't know.. wouldn't FecSoc disqualify you from working for at least as many justices as it would give you a bump for? Besides, you can work for Thomas if you join FedSoc and graduate #1 at a random T1/T2
I'm sure that it eliminates a whole swath of judges, but the percentage of YHS students who are conservative sees to be much, much smaller than the percentage of federal judges who are the same.

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Wholigan

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Re: Diversity and SCOTUS Clerkships

Post by Wholigan » Fri Mar 25, 2011 4:16 pm

notanumber wrote:I'm sure that it eliminates a whole swath of judges, but the percentage of YHS students who are conservative sees to be much, much smaller than the percentage of federal judges who are the same.
I guess that's true. I notice that Thomas hasn't had a Stanford clerk in 15 years (during which time he's had Creighton, Notre Dame, GW, Rutgers, George Mason, etc). Alito has only had two and Roberts one. Must be a pretty small Fed Soc over at SLS... although Scalia doesn't seem to mind Stanford quite as much.

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