Thread by @DavidLat

1/ An interesting and important piece by @whignewtons for @politico about the trend of having multiple lower-court clerkships before clerking for the Supreme Court — and how it’s contributing to the lack of diversity among #SCOTUS clerks. #appellatetwitter

https://twitter.com/whignewtons/status/1389579855478599688

2/ I tend to agree with @whignewtons that this emerging preference among the justices for multiple feeder-judge clerkships is hurting diversity — especially gender diversity — among #scotus clerks. #appellatetwitter

3/ Sure, there can be advantages to having more-experienced clerks at #scotus. It can be helpful to have clerked at both the trial and appellate levels, or state and federal (although the latter is uncommon). #appellatetwitter

4/ But is the experiential advantage of two or more pre-#scotus clerkships worth the hit to law clerk diversity? Like @whignewtons, I’m not so sure. #appellatetwitter

5/ And I don’t see much value to doing two federal appellate clerkships before clerking for the Supreme Court. When students/clerks ask for me advice on this, I generally discourage it (unless the person is “#SCOTUS clerkship or bust”). #appellatetwitter