On the US Supreme Court opening day, United Methodists joined one thousand protesters in a mass demonstration in front of the Court on Oct. 5 to condemn the sitting nine justices' hiring record of minorities to the clerkship. They were attempting to present the justices with a stack of resumes of potential minority law clerks. In total, the current Supreme Court justices have hired only 7 African Americans out of 428 clerks, or less than 2 percent.
Women comprise of only one-fourth of clerks.
The demonstration involved representatives from the National Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and the Native American Bar Association. Since law clerks heavily influence the cases heard and the opinions written by the Supreme Court, protesters maintained that minority groups in the United States want the opportunity to advance their agenda. Thom White Wolf Fassett, general secretary of the General Board of Church and Society, who participated in the demonstration, stressed that the US Supreme Court is no longer a court of democracy. Fassett pointed out that several religious liberty issues, particularly concerning Native Americans, have been defeated, because Native Americans are not part of the decision-making process. Constance Barnes, staff of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race and one of the protesters, stated that court decisions are interpreted from a European American perspective and the voice of people of color is missing.