Civil Rights Advocates Arrested in Protest of Law Clerk Hirings

Nineteen civil rights advocates, including the head of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, were arrested in front of the Supreme Court building on Monday as part of a protest against the lack of minorities among law clerks hired by the justices.

The demonstration, organized by the NAACP and attended by more than 1,000 people, coincided with the start of the court’s new term.

Only one of the 34 law clerks hired for the 1998-99 session is a minority--a Latina. And according to a recent study, of the 428 law clerks selected by the court’s current justices during their tenure--which in some cases exceeds 20 years--only 4.2% have been Asian Americans, while the percentages of African Americans and Latinos were fewer than 2% for each. None were Native Americans.

“The fact that the nine justices who sit on the highest court in the land do not practice equal opportunity exposes a great deal of hypocrisy,” said NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, a former Maryland congressman.

Mfume and several other leaders intentionally crossed police barricades, saying they wanted to deliver the resumes of minority applicants to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. They were arrested by Supreme Court police for attempting to demonstrate on the court’s grounds instead of the public sidewalk.