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So Brett Kavanaugh's Hired A Bunch Of Women Law Clerks -- Who Cares?

We need to stop giving out gold stars and start handing out demerits when judges consistently fail to hire diverse candidates.

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There’s already an annoying factoid out there that is only going to grow in prominence as the confirmation battle over Brett Kavanaugh heats up. And that’s that he’s hired more female law clerks than male law clerks — 25 of the 48 clerks he’s hired have been women.

To this I say: whoopdee f*cking sh*t.

Some people will (or have already) seize on this and called Kavanaugh a diversity “rock star.” Ummmm, slow your roll there, champ. Because here’s the thing — there are more women than men in law schools, so the fact that Kavanaugh’s hiring practices reflect that demographic reality is not cause to get excited. It’s pretty much exactly as it should be, statistically. (I’ll note around 27 percent of Kavanaugh’s clerks have been people of color, while the percentage of minorities enrolled in law school is ~32 percent.)

Perhaps you might be compelled to point out that other federal judges, even some liberal jurists, have lesser hiring records. That’s a fair point, and a reason to push those lifetime appointees to change, not a reason to exalt a man doing the bare minimum. In fact, using rhetoric that lauds Kavanaugh as exemplary is exactly the problem. We need to see hiring like Kavanaugh’s as normal, not as something special. A hiring record like Kavanaugh’s should be expected from all jurists, we need to stop giving out gold stars and start handing out demerits when judges consistently fail to hire diverse candidates.

And here’s the real kick in the pants — the diversity of a judge’s hires are only ever an issue when Republicans are up. It’s like they know their jurisprudence won’t hold up on women’s issues so the hiring of a few women is dangled in front of us. Is it supposed to make up for the inevitable onslaught against women’s rights that’s coming? F*ck that noise. It doesn’t. It isn’t even in the same ballpark. And if I had to choose one — although I don’t know why we can’t have it all — I’d pick the judge who will stridently defend reproductive freedom and never hires a single woman.

Instead we’re likely to be bombarded by more stories of how Brett Kavanaugh is a champion for women as a blatant attempt to distract from the harsh reality of his jurisprudence.

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headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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