ABCNEWS.com : Minorities, Women Protest at Supreme Court

★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/protest100499.html

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	Protest at Supreme Court Coalition Decries Lack of Minority Law Clerks
	NAACP President Kweisi Mfume meets reporters in Washington to discuss minority hiring practices of law clerks for the Supreme Court. (Joe Marquette/AP Photo)

By Paul Shepard
The Associated Press
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 4 — A coalition representing minorities and women’s groups called for greater ethnic and gender diversity among Supreme Court law clerks as the court opened a new term today.
     This year’s class of clerks has more black and brown faces than any other in recent memory. Among the new class of 35 law clerks at work for the highest court’s nine justices are five minority clerks — two blacks and three Asian-Americans. Last year’s class included one, a Hispanic.
     But at a press conference, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said the court still sends out the message that “people of color need not apply,” for the influential clerkships.
     “People of good will understand this hypocrisy must end on the Supreme Court,” Mfume said. “If the court were a private company, it would have been found guilty long ago of racial discrimination.”
     Prior to this year’s class, of the 428 clerks hired over time by the nine current justices, less than 2 percent have been black, 1 percent were Hispanic and less than 5 percent Asian-American. No American Indian has ever worked as a clerk on the Supreme Court.

Rehnquist Rejected Meeting Last Year
Those statistics led to a noisy protest last year on the court’s front steps where 19 people were arrested.
     Chief Justice William Rehnquist is again being asked to meet with coalition members to discuss the situation. Last year, Rehnquist rebuffed a similar meeting request from the group.
     Supreme Court clerks wield influence in discussions with justices on pending cases and crafting early drafts of opinions. And since many court rulings affect racially charged issues such as affirmative action and immigration rights, civil rights advocates say greater input from minorities is needed for fairness.
     Groups represented at the press conference included the National Bar Association, The Hispanic Bar Association, the Native American Bar Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and the National Organization for Women.

S U M M A R Y

There are more minorities than ever among the Supreme Court clerks, but a coalition says the court can do better.