Study Shows Alarming Lack of Diversity Among State Supreme Court Justices
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[FAIR COURTS]
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Webinar: State Supreme Court Diversity
On September 25 at 3pm ET, the Brennan Center will present the findings of our recent report, State Supreme Court Diversity ([link removed]). Please join us! RSVP here ([link removed]).
Amid growing recognition of disparities in America's justice system, this report highlights a critical but under-scrutinized problem: the lack of racial, ethnic, and gender diversity on state supreme court benches across the United States. Join the report’s authors to learn more about how racial and gender disparities in the courts undermine fair and impartial justice.
SUPREME COURT
New Article Urges Supreme Court Reform
Chief Counsel of the Brennan Center, Frederick A.O. (“Fritz”) Schwarz, Jr., is the latest voice to add to the ongoing debate about potential reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court. Schwarz wrote an article for the Fall edition of the Democracy Journal ([link removed]), where he proposed instituting regular appointments to the Court, along with an 18-year term and the end of strategic retirements for justices.
Schwarz writes, “[c]ontinued reliance on a 232-year-old system for appointing justices harms the Court and the country.” He goes on to describe how the Supreme Court has changed since the country’s founding, having “moved from the margins of our everyday lives to deciding crucial issues affecting the country.” He further argues that as “rhetoric surrounding the Court has polarized, confirmations of justices themselves have become more partisan.” Adopting regular appointments and an 18-year term, he contends, will “make the Court more democratically accountable” and “more consistent with our constitutional vision.”
Democratic Candidates Call for Kavanaugh’s Impeachment after New Information About Sexual Misconduct
On September 14, The New York Times ([link removed]) published an excerpt from The Education of Brett Kavanaugh: An Investigation, including new corroboration of claims that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh exposed himself and sexually assaulted Deborah Ramirez at a Yale party during their freshman year. The Times also reports that another Yale classmate, Max Stier, “notified senators and the F.B.I. about [a separate incident involving similar conduct by Kavanaugh], but the F.B.I. did not investigate.” The Times later issued an editor’s note that, “the female student declined to be interviewed and friends say she does not recall the incident.”
This information follows the 2018 testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, during which she alleged that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party, and the subsequent F.B.I. investigation into Kavanaugh’s conduct. The Washington Post’s ([link removed]) Editorial Board wrote that the new information regarding the F.B.I.’s lack of follow up reveals their investigation as a sham.
President Trump denounced ([link removed]) the new allegations and suggested ([link removed]) Kavanaugh “should start suing people for libel, or the Justice Department should come to his rescue.” Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and former housing and urban development secretary Julián Castro, called for Kavanaugh to be impeached ([link removed]). Those calls, however, have since been dismissed ([link removed]) by several congressional Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
STATE COURTS
Two Florida Supreme Court Justices Nominated by Trump to Eleventh Circuit
President Trump has nominated ([link removed]) Florida Supreme Court justices Barbara Lagoa and Robert Luck to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit after just months on the state’s supreme court. Florida Governor Ron Desantis appointed Lagoa and Luck in January 2019, along with Justice Carlos Muniz, to replace “three liberal justices, transforming the balance of the court from a 4-3 liberal majority to a 6-1 conservative Florida Supreme Court,” according to the Orlando Sentinel ([link removed]). Lagoa and Luck previously served ([link removed]) on Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal and are members of the conservative law group the Federalist Society. The Sentinel reports that the President’s nomination of Lagoa and Luck, “highlights Trump’s close ties with Gov. Ron DeSantis.”
In addition to the potential for two supreme court appointments to replace Lagoa and Luck, DeSantis has further opportunities to shape Florida’s judiciary, but is unlikely to make appointments that will make the judiciary a more accurate reflection of Florida’s public. According to the Florida Phoenix ([link removed]), nine candidates were recently nominated by the First District Court of Appeal’s judicial nominating commission: “seven white males, two white females, six members of the Federalist Society, five graduates of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and precisely no members of minority groups.”
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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary defend – our country’s systems of democracy and justice.
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