August 27, 2009
Private: Judicial Diversity
Federal Courts, Judicial Diversity, Justice Sotomayor, President Obama
President Obama has an opportunity not just to reshape the federal judiciary ideologically, but also to make it look more like America. A new report from the Brookings Institution shows that, while diversity is lacking on the federal bench, it is improving drastically.
This mirrors a recent conversation hosted by ACS at the National Press Club recently, where Prof. Sherrilyn Ifill said that during Justice Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, our country lost an opportunity to have a healthy discussion about the value of and obstacles to more diversity in federal courts.
The Washington Post also reports, "President George W. Bush had nominated 48 people to district and courts of appeals judgeships at this point in his presidency ... [and] Obama has nominated 16 besides Sotomayor, the only nominee so far confirmed by the Senate." So far, President Obama's nominees to the lower courts include "six white men, two white women, three black men, two black women, two Asian American women and one Asian American man," according to the Post.