Court benches fail to reflect the communities they serve and the diversity of the legal profession
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New Analysis Details Lack of Diversity on Many State Supreme Courts
This week, the Brennan Center published the latest annual update
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to its State Supreme Court Diversity
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report analyzing the demographic and professional diversity of state supreme court justices. In the last year, 32 new justices have joined state high courts: 8 by election and 24 by appointment. Fifteen of the new justices are women, seven are people of color, and six are women of color.
Overall, while people of color comprise over 40 percent of the population, they represent only 20 percent of high court justices in all 50 states and Washington, DC, and women hold 42 percent of seats. There are now 18 states where no justices identify as a person of color, including 12 states where people of color make up over 20 percent of the population. This is a slight decrease from last year, when 20 states had all-white high court benches. Six states have only one woman on the supreme court bench, and South Carolina has no female justices.
Diversity of professional backgrounds also remains rare across state supreme court benches. Thirty-eight percent of sitting justices are former prosecutors, up from 37 percent last year. In contrast, only 9 percent of sitting justices are former public defenders (up from 7 percent last year) and only 2 percent are former civil legal aid attorneys (consistent with last year’s data).
Federal Judge Temporarily Blocks Appointment of New Judges in Mississippi
On May 11, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate issued a temporary restraining order blocking the appointment of four new state court judges in Jackson, Mississippi, and preventing the enactment of H.B. 1020
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. The bill would create a separate judicial district in Jackson, the city with the highest Black population in the state, in which judges would be appointed by the chief justice of the state supreme court instead of being elected by local voters as trial court judges across the state are.
The Mississippi NAACP and Jackson NAACP branches, which filed
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the federal lawsuit on April 21, allege that the court-related provisions in the law violate the 14th Amendment by targeting Jackson’s residents on the basis of race and subjecting them to a different criminal justice system than the rest of the residents of Mississippi.
Another lawsuit challenging H.B. 1020 was filed
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by three Jackson residents in state court, arguing that the legislation violates several provisions of the Mississippi Constitution, which provides that circuit and chancery court judges in the state “shall be elected by the people” and limits the legislature’s authority to create new courts. On May 15, Hinds County Chancellor J. Dewayne Thomas denied
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the injunction requested by the plaintiffs, holding that they did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the legislation was unconstitutional. The case has been appealed to the state supreme court.
Three Federal Judicial Nominees Advanced Upon Senator Feinstein’s Return
On May 10, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) returned to the Senate after a ten-week absence while she was receiving medical treatment. While Feinstein was out, she asked to be temporarily replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee, but Republicans blocked
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the request.
Upon her return, the committee advanced three of Biden’s nominees for federal district court judgeships: Charnelle Bjelkengren, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington; S. Kato Crews, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado; and Marian Gaston, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. Three additional nominees were voted on before Feinstein’s arrival, garnering bipartisan support that enabled them to advance without her vote.
As of May 11, there were
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96 vacancies on Article III federal courts and 35 nominees awaiting confirmation. So far during the Biden administration, the Senate has confirmed 126 Article III judges. By comparison
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, the Senate confirmed 231 federal judges during the Trump administration and 171 during the first four years of the Obama administration.
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