 Guardian learns Amy Chua said she would advise students on their physical looks to help win post in Kavanaugh’s chambers 
 
 A top professor at Yale Law School who strongly endorsed supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as a “mentor to women” privately told a group of law students last year that it was “not an accident” that Kavanaugh’s female law clerks all “looked like models” and would provide advice to students about their physical appearance if they wanted to work for him, the Guardian has learned. Amy Chua, a Yale professor who wrote a bestselling book on parenting called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, was known for instructing female law students who were preparing for interviews with Kavanaugh on ways they could dress to exude a “model-like” femininity to help them win a post in Kavanaugh’s chambers, according to sources. (Kavanaugh has denied knowing about Kozinski’s reputation with women.) One source said that in at least one case, a law student was so put off by Chua’s advice about how she needed to look, and its implications, that she decided not to pursue a clerkship with Kavanaugh, a powerful member of the judiciary who had a formal role in vetting clerks who served in the US supreme court. “He told me, ‘You should know that Judge Kavanaugh hires women with a certain look,’” one woman told the Guardian. “He did not say what the look was and I did not ask.” 
 
 Sources who spoke to the Guardian about their experiences with Chua and Rubenfeld would only speak under the condition of anonymity because they feared retribution and damage to their future careers. Though the judge was known to hire female clerks who had a “certain look,” Rubenfeld told her, he emphasized that he had heard nothing else untoward. He did not say what the look was and I did not ask Anonymous source 
 
 Chua advised the same student Rubenfeld spoke to that she ought to dress in an “outgoing” way for her interview with Kavanaugh, and that the student should send Chua pictures of herself in different outfits before going to interview. “I have no reason to believe he was saying, ‘Send me the pretty ones’, but rather that he was reporting back and saying, ‘I really like so and so,’ and the way he described them led them to form certain conclusions.” 
 
 Kavanaugh is close to Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose retirement from the supreme court left an opening, and Kavanaugh was one of three judges who vetted clerks to serve in Kennedy’s chambers. She told the students she had known about allegedly abusive and harassing behavior by another judge, Alex Kozinski, who was head of the ninth circuit and was forced to retire from the bench last year after more than a dozen women accused him of harassment. “It was very clear to me that he was talking about physical appearance, because it was phrased as a warning ― and because it came after the warning about Judge Kozinski.” 
 
 On a separate occasion last year, Chua offered more detail, telling a group of students that it’s “not an accident” that Kavanaugh’s law clerks “look like models,” Chua said, according to an account published in The Guardian on Thursday. Rubenfeld sent an email to the Yale Law School community that said his wife had been ill and in hospital and had a long period of recuperation ahead of her. The investigation is focused on Rubenfeld’s conduct, particularly with female law students. The investigation was initiated before Kavanaugh was nominated by Donald Trump to serve on the high court. “She did, however, say that she offers members of her small group the ‘opportunity’ to send her photos so she can help them figure out what to wear for interviews.” 
 
 “For the more than ten years I’ve known him, Judge Kavanaugh’s first and only litmus test in hiring has been excellence,” Chua told HuffPost in a response to a request for comment from both professors. As I wrote in the Wall Street Journal, he has also been an exceptional mentor to his female clerks and a champion of their careers. “Among my proudest moments as a parent was the day I learned our daughter would join those ranks.” 
 
 The statement added that Kavanaugh’s clerks have been a “diverse” group.
– "Tiger Mom" Amy Chua is in the news again, though not because of her parenting. Rather, she's become ensnared in the latest coverage of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his interaction with women. The Guardian reports that Chua, a Yale professor, "played an outsized role in vetting" the clerks who worked for Kavanaugh, as many of them came from Yale, Kavanaugh's alma mater. The unnamed sources the paper spoke with described receiving advice from Chua and her husband, Jed Rubenfeld, also of Yale, about the "look" Kavanaugh favored. There are no allegations of improper behavior between Kavanaugh and his clerks, but some found Chua and Rubenfeld's "counsel off-putting," per the HuffPost's source, who says the advice she received was "phrased as a warning." The Guardian reports the couple's tendency to raise the issue of looks didn't extend to other judges. One student who was advised by the couple says, "I have no reason to believe [Kavanaugh] was saying, 'Send me the pretty ones,' but rather that he was reporting back and saying, 'I really like so and so,' and the way he described them led them to form certain conclusions." Those conclusions allegedly included Chua telling students it was "no accident" the women who clerked for Kavanaugh "looked like models," and Rubenfeld saying Kavanaugh opted for female clerks "with a certain look." Chua, who is reportedly dealing with a serious illness, said in a statement that the only trait Kavanaugh requires in his clerks is excellence. Yale Law School says it will look into the claims, which it says it had not previously heard.