Justices Won’t Meet to Discuss Diversity

The Supreme Court’s nine members, after months of publicly ignoring criticism for not hiring more minorities and women as law clerks, are defending themselves and rejecting calls for a “dialogue” with minority bar groups.

In a recent letter to three black members of Congress, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said it would be “inappropriate for any justice . . . to seek guidance from special constituencies.”

In a separate, brief letter to NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, who had requested a meeting with the chief justice, Rehnquist simply attached a copy of the letter.

Mfume, in a statement Monday, said the high court’s selection process for law clerks “is systematically flawed” with a process “that renders diversity virtually impossible.”