On a week when the conservative Supreme Court addressed affirmative action programs that provide racial preferences in college applications, liberals felt the impact of the loss of a giant who backed the favoritism, the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
In her years as a judge, the celebrated “RBG” fought for affirmative action and kept critics such as those now on the court off to the sidelines.
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She talked about it and gave speeches on it, once telling a Paris political school, “We will all profit from a more diverse, inclusive society, understanding, accommodating, even celebrating our differences, while pulling together for the common good.”
But one thing she didn’t do much of as a judge was practice what she preached. And as affirmative action proponents criticize conservative justices such as Clarence Thomas for casting doubt on the policy during this week’s court case hearing, their supporters are highlighting Ginsburg’s lack of minority hiring.
Mark Paoletta, who worked on Thomas’s confirmation and is the co-author of a new book, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in his Own Words, said examples date to before Ginsburg’s 1993 Senate confirmation in a 96-3 vote.
A clip from CSPAN’s archives shows her being questioned about her lack of a diverse staff by then Sen. Orrin Hatch. He noted that in her 13 years as a lower court judge, she had never hired a black law clerk, secretary, or intern. Over that time, she had 57 employees as a judge.
Her response to the sympathetic Republican was, “I have tried, and I’m going to try harder, and if you confirm me for this job, my attractiveness to black candidates is going to improve.”
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But according to Paoletta’s count and those done by others, she hired just one black clerk.
“On the day racial preference advocates told the Supreme Court that there is no timeline for ending this unconstitutional practice of discriminating by race, it’s worth noting that one of its biggest defenders in recent times, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, did not practice what she preached. In 40 years on the federal bench, she hired exactly one black law clerk out of a total of 160 clerks. A classic liberal: ‘Rules for Thee, Not for Me,’” Paoletta told Secrets.
He added, “When confronted in her Supreme Court hearings with the fact that she hired exactly zero black employees in 13 years on D.C. Circuit, she seemed to blame black applicants, said she would try harder on the Supreme Court, and laughed. In 27 years on the Supreme Court, she hired one black law clerk out of more than 100. Did she lie in her hearings?”
