Kavanaugh Hires All-Woman Team of Clerks, Which

Brett Kavanaugh is hitting the ground running—following his successful confirmation to the Supreme Court despite allegations that he sexually assaulted multiple women as a young man—with the news that he’s already hired an all-woman team of law clerks.

This is an historic first for the court, but, after the allegations that dogged Kavanaugh’s confirmation process—along with the gut-wrenching, women-hating vitriol it kicked up from a wide swath of Republicans and their voting base—you’ll forgive me if my only reaction to that “first” is a pained grimace.

As the New York Times reported on Sunday, Kavanaugh was in his chambers that very day preparing to hear arguments this week, the second of the Supreme Court’s term. Per the paper:

[Kavanaugh] added in his testimony that he had provisionally hired his four Supreme Court clerks before allegations of sexual misconduct against him had surfaced. “All four are women,” he said. Counting Justice Kavanaugh’s new clerks, women make up a majority of Supreme Court clerks for the first time.

[…]

New justices often hire their former clerks when they start at the court, but only one of Justice Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court clerks, Kim Jackson, worked for him on the appeals court. The other three — Shannon Grammel, Megan Lacy and Sara Nommensen — worked for appeals court judges appointed by Republican presidents.

Ms. Lacy had also worked for Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who helped push through Justice Kavanaugh’s nomination.

We can never have a moment without Chuck Grassley, the Senate Judiciary chair who helped ram Kavanaugh’s confirmation through while still crying foul about the degradation of the “process,” popping up.

But hey, Kavanaugh hired women, which is practically a feminist act. I’m sure that will matter deeply the moment an issue concerning women’s reproductive rights lands in the high court.