Selection bias tends to be more manifest at extremely high levels of achievement. If American education has only a modest tendency to push women away from math and engineering, MIT will be overwhelmingly male no matter what. Thus one possible reading of the tilt towards super-elite law schools for Supreme Court justices is that there's likely a tilt towards in other top pre-Justice career paths—law professors at top law schools, circuit court Judges, top legal positions in the Executive branch, etc. Since it's unlikely that these schools are the only place one can learn to be an appellate judge or Solicitor General, the Obama Administration might want to consider instituting something similar to the Rooney Rule, so that they at least interview top graduates of great-but-not-outstanding law schools when vacancies arise. Surely some of them would prove capable jurists.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Diversity of What?
Selection bias tends to be more manifest at extremely high levels of achievement. If American education has only a modest tendency to push women away from math and engineering, MIT will be overwhelmingly male no matter what. Thus one possible reading of the tilt towards super-elite law schools for Supreme Court justices is that there's likely a tilt towards in other top pre-Justice career paths—law professors at top law schools, circuit court Judges, top legal positions in the Executive branch, etc. Since it's unlikely that these schools are the only place one can learn to be an appellate judge or Solicitor General, the Obama Administration might want to consider instituting something similar to the Rooney Rule, so that they at least interview top graduates of great-but-not-outstanding law schools when vacancies arise. Surely some of them would prove capable jurists.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment