From the National Law Journal:
Under pressure from Congress, the federal judiciary is ramping up efforts to hire more minority law clerks at the district and appeals court levels, while acknowledging that “there is significant room for improvement” in the diversity of clerks.
The Judicial Conference of the United States offered that assessment as part of a response to questions from a House budget subcommittee last year about the dearth of minority law clerks. The judiciary’s policymaking body also compiled statistics on the percentage of minority law clerks during the past seven years — statistics that have not been widely publicized before now.
In 2008, the most recent year available, 13.9 percent of district court law clerks were non-Caucasian, which breaks down as 6.2 percent Asian-American, 4.1 percent African-American, 3.3 percent Hispanic, 0.2 percent Pacific Islander and 0.1 percent Native American. The numbers were similar at the appeals court level. The percentage of minorities has changed little since 2003, according to the statistics.
Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said at a recent hearing of the House Appropriations subcommittee on financial services and general government that the lack of minority clerks at all levels of the judiciary — including the Supreme Court — is a continuing concern, adding that “something has to change.”
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