Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg praised Justice Brett Kavanaugh for his part in making Supreme Court history by keeping his promise to hire only women as his law clerks.
“Justice Kavanaugh made history by bringing on board an all-female law clerk crew. Thanks to his selections, the Court has this Term, for the first time ever, more women than men serving as law clerks,” Ginsburg said at the Second Circuit Judicial Conference on Friday.
Kavanaugh had promised to have all of his law clerks be female during his confirmation process, during which he refuted a sexual assault allegation from Christine Blasey Ford.
“Before this allegation arose two weeks ago, I was required to start making certain administrative preparations for my possible transfer to the Supreme Court, just in case I was confirmed,” Kavanaugh said. “I did so, and contingently hired four law clerks. All four are women,” he said. “If confirmed, I’ll be the first justice in the history of the Supreme Court to have a group of all-women law clerks. That is who I am.”
Ginsburg added, “Women did not fare nearly as well as advocates. Only about 21% of the attorneys presenting oral argument this Term were female; of the thirty-four attorneys who appeared more than once, only six were women.”
Ginsburg also explained what Kavanaugh does now that he is the most junior justice on the bench.
“With Justice Kavanaugh’s arrival, Justice Gorsuch cheerfully relinquished to our newest colleague the tasks assigned to the Junior Justice—answering the telephone the rare times it rings during Conference, opening the door when an aide appears to deliver papers a Justice left behind, conveying to the entourage from the Clerk’s Office, the Public Information Office, and other Court administrators the dispositions reached at Conference, and, most thankless of all chores, sitting on the Court’s Cafeteria Committee,” she said.
