Justices Won’t Meet to Discuss Diversity

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s nine members, after months of publicly ignoring criticism for not hiring more minorities and women as law clerks, are defending themselves and rejecting calls for a “dialogue” with minority bar groups.

In a recent letter to three black members of Congress, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist said it would be “inappropriate for any justice . . . to seek guidance from special constituencies.”

In a separate, brief letter to NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, who had requested a meeting with the chief justice, Rehnquist simply attached a copy of the letter.

Mfume, in a statement Monday, said the high court’s selection process for law clerks “is systematically flawed” with a process “that renders diversity virtually impossible.”