Posted by on Friday, March 28, 2014
Welcome to this week’s Diversity Dish and Happy Friday! This week we have two very different but interesting stories. First, a call for the Senate take into account professional diversity in the judiciary. Next a call for more diversity within the profession by Constitutional Law expert Erwin Chemerinksy. Enjoy this week’s Diversity Dish, have a great weekend and if you aren’t already, follow us on Twitter @CourtneyDredden.
3.27.14 Over 30 groups have urged the Senate to consider professional diversity when considering candidates for the federal judiciary, Andi Medici reports in the Federal Times. In a letter signed by labor, civil rights and good government groups, the Senate was encouraged to think about diversity in broad terms and to recognize that diversity of professional background is as important as gender or racial diversity. The letter said, in part, “[a] truly diverse judiciary ... not only reflects the gender, ethnic, sexual orientation, disability, and racial diversity of the nation, but also includes judges who come from all corners of the legal profession — and particularly those who have worked in the public interest, representing those whose voices are otherwise rarely hear.” Professional diversity is something that we don’t hear about nearly as much as some other types of diversity but the point is well taken.
3.28.14 We normally don’t report on lectures and speeches at schools in this space, but we thought we’d share an interesting talk that Erwin Chemerinsky gave at SIU Law recently. Pete Spitler writes in The Southern Illinoisan on Chemerinsky’s speech on the lack of diversity in the legal profession. Chemerinsky notes that in 2000, 7.5% of law students in the U.S. were black. Now, that number has dropped to 7.2%. "The simple reality is if we're going to have a more diverse profession, we need to have more diverse law schools," Chemerinsky said. He continued on to note, “[n]o school has yet found a way to achieve racial diversity by being entirely race-neutral. The reason college universities have affirmative action is it is another way to achieve diversity.” When experts like Chemerinsky talk, people listen. So we love that he focused on the need for diversity in this speech!
