in an interesting article by Linda Greenhouse on this year's relative paucity of women among Supreme Court clerks. The lines I most agree with from the article are, "Unaware of the overall drop in numbers, Justice Souter said he assumed it reflected no more than a random variation among this year's applicants. That was also the assessment offered by Justice Breyer ...." One swallow does not make a summer, and one year's data — especially when the data involves ten people who hire a total of 37 clerks — doesn't make a usefully analyzable phenomenon.

UPDATE: Two commenters' suggestions lead me to add a link to the earlier post, and expressly note that the earlier post was prompted by Amber (Prettier than Napoleon).

Also, there's an error in the graphic accompanying the Times table (though the Times generally deserves praise for providing the raw data): In 2001-02, Thomas hired three women clerks, not two: Margaret Ryan, Neomi Rao, and Sigal Mandelker. I assume the Times people were misled by the fact that the name of one, Sigal Mandelker, is not obviously feminine -- at least to someone unfamiliar with Israeli names -- but she is indeed female. (I know Neomi and the fourth clerk, Matthew Berry, quite well, and know Sigal through them.) Not a big deal by any means, but I thought I'd note this for people who are really interested in the data.