Our nation’s army of judicial clerks is overwhelmingly white, not unlike the judiciary it serves. Only 14 percent of federal clerks in 2009 were minorities, according to a study that year by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) — the last time any comprehensive survey of clerk diversity was done. Minorities fared slightly better in less prestigious state court clerkships, where they filled 18 percent of the positions.
But even that was significantly lower than overall diversity of law students, which stood at 22 percent minority that year. There were only eight African-American men in federal clerkships out of a total 1,168 clerks.
