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Thursday, July 08, 2010
Ind. Courts - One view on the slowness of change
Re the stories today that all the semi-finalists selected for the Supreme Court are from Indiana University law schools, in contrast to the schools attended by the current justices, things indeed have changed.
"Back in the day" when I graduated from IU-Indy, the big Indy firms rarely hired in-state grads, Ivy League was the rule. And I don't remember any women judges.
Law jobs for women were problematic. I can attest that the stories told by Justices O'Connor and Ginsberg are true -- upon passing the bar, I applied at the Attorney General's office and was asked if I could type or take shorthand. When I replied no, the interviewer asked, "Well, little lady, what can you do?"
Much has changed in the last 40 years, women now make up more than half of law school graduates and gender is not an issue in finding law jobs (although the economy is right now). But our Supreme Court remains all male. The Judicial Nominating Commission has only one female member. And although 19 well-qualified women, some of the state's best and brightest, applied for consideration to replace Justice Boehm, 15 were swept out yesterday in the first go-around.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 8, 2010 04:25 PM
Posted to Vacancy on Supreme Ct