Diversity of the Federal Bench

Current statistics on the gender and racial diversity of the Article III courts.

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Diversity of the Federal Bench

Courts should look like the people they represent. While judges who sit on the federal bench are overwhelmingly white and male, previous administrations have put an emphasis on increasing representation for both women and people of color. Under the Trump administration, this progress stalled. The Biden administration has the opportunity to reverse this trend by nominating more diverse people to the federal bench.

This page shares current statistics on all active Article III judges. These graphs do not account for judges who have taken senior status (the Federal Judicial Center explains that senior status “enables judges to continue hearing cases with a reduced workload in lieu of retiring entirely”). Article III judges make up the U.S. Supreme Court, circuit courts, district courts, and the U.S. Court of International Trade. The page also compares the Article III judges confirmed under the the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations.

For more data regarding the LGBTQ+ diversity on our federal courts, we encourage you to visit the LGBTQ+ Bar’s Article III Judges webpage.

ACS compiled these statistics from data made available by the Federal Judicial Center. We update the graphics continually.

All Active Federal Judges

Confirmed Federal Judges Since 2009

Gender and Racial/Ethnic Breakdown of Active Federal Judges Confirmed Under Presidents Biden,
Trump, and Obama

During the Obama administration, there were 329 confirmed Article III judges: 2 justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, 55 circuit court judges, 268 district court judges, and 4 judges to the U.S. Court of International Trade.

During the Trump administration, there were 234 confirmed Article III judges: 3 justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, 54 circuit court judges, 174 district court judges, and 3 judges to the U.S. Court of International Trade. Of the judges nominated by President Trump, most were white and male.

So far under the Biden administration, there have been 210 confirmed Article III judges: 1 justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, 44 circuit court judges, 163 district court judges, and 2 judge to the U.S. Court of International Trade.

The charts below show the difference in the diversity of lifetime judges confirmed during the Biden, Trump, and Obama administrations.

Circuit Court Judges

Gender and Racial/Ethnic Breakdown of Active Circuit Court Judges

Each year, the circuit courts of appeal hear approximately 50,000 cases. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court only takes several hundred cases a year. Therefore the circuit courts are often the last word in federal appeals. View our map for data about individual circuit courts.

District Court Judges

Gender and Racial/Ethnic Breakdown of District Court Judges

The district courts are federal trial courts and are the first (and often only) stop for federal litigants. View our map for data about individual district courts.