JOHN LEO'S BLOG

As usual, the "Volokh Conspiracy" featured lively exchanges on the subject, many of which dealt with familiar arguments about sexual differences and the allegedly greater reluctance of females to travel for appellate court clerkships, a steppingstone to the high court. One poster at "Volokh" offered stats on the number of female clerks chosen by each justice since 2000. Only one justice, Stephen Breyer, has named more female clerks than male–13 men and 15 women. The most lopsided numbers came from Anthony Kennedy (25 men, 3 women) and Antonin Scalia (26 men, 2 women). The poster who provided the statistics wrote:

The gender disparity in the Kennedy and Scalia chambers is quite resounding. I think that such huge disparities might in part be explained by the paucity of qualified women and especially qualified conservative women, but the 51-5 ratio (as compared to the ratio of even Justice [Clarence] Thomas) makes me wonder whether some kind of sexism is at play.