U.S. Supreme Court U.S. Supreme Court. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ NLJ

U.S. Supreme Court law clerks, at the upper echelon of the clerking experience, are mostly male and mostly white.

That's the bottom-line finding of a series of stories The National Law Journal published last year, and helps put in perspective Justice Brett Kavanaugh's hiring of four female clerks. Kavanaugh's four clerks—Shannon Grammel, Megan Lacy, Sara Nommensen and Kim Jackson—mark the first time in history, according to Kavanaugh, that a justice has hired four women in a single term. Jackson is an African-American female.

According to our reporting:

➤➤ Since 2005—when the Roberts court began—85 percent of all law clerks have been white. Only 20 of the 487 clerks hired by justices were African-American, and nine were Hispanic. Twice as many men as women are clerks.

➤➤ Low numbers span the court's ideological spectrum. Only 12 percent of the clerks hired by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Clarence Thomas since 2005 were minorities. Ginsburg has hired only one African-American clerk since she joined the high court in 1993, and the same goes for Justice Samuel Alito Jr., who became a justice in 2006.

➤➤ While Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer have hired men and women in equal numbers, other chambers continue to be male-dominated. Justice Anthony Kennedy, Kavanaugh's predecessor, hired six times as many men as women as law clerks since 2005.

➤➤ Kavanaugh told us that increasing diversity among clerks requires outreach. “A big part of it is demystifying the process, having a conversation about how it works, and encouraging the students to apply,” Kavanaugh said in an interview. As a result, he has delivered 10 of his own minority D.C. Circuit clerks to the Supreme Court.

➤➤ Other factors come into play as well. Judge Edith Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said attractive options are luring minorities away. “Top corporate counsel and top law firms are demanding diversity. The clients want it too,” said Jones, who has sent seven of her clerks to the Supreme Court since 2005.

Kavanaugh will join the justices Tuesday for his first oral arguments at the high court. He's arriving from a bruising confirmation process, where he faced allegations of sexual misconduct from his high school and college years. Kavanaugh denied the claims. He might find a chilly start at the court, if the history of the Clarence Thomas saga—he faced sexual harassment claims at his confirmation—is any guide.

 

Read more on our Supreme Court clerk series and other clerk stories:

Shut Out: SCOTUS Law Clerks Still Mostly White and Male

Mostly White and Male: Diversity Still Lags Among SCOTUS Law Clerks

SCOTUS Law Clerks: The Gender Imbalance

How Jones Day Cornered the Market on SCOTUS Clerks

Justice Thomas Ventures Beyond Elite Schools to Fill Clerkship Posts

Kavanaugh's Clerk Hires: Inside the Diverse, Ivy-Heavy Group of 48

Female Clerks Stand by Kavanaugh Despite Assault Allegation