Diversity News

High school students brought a fresh touch when invited by the League of Women Voters of Spartanburg County, S.C. to find new ways to drive home a message about judicial diversity. See Gavel Grab for more.

The number of minority law clerks serving federal judges has declined from five years ago. The clerkships are considered to be an important path to an eventual judgeship. For more, see Gavel Grab. 

With two open judgeships in the state’s largest judicial district, the Utah Minority Bar Association wants to make sure justice is not just blind but color-blind. Appearing before members of the 3rd District Judicial Nominating Committee on Tuesday, UMBA members said the state’s judiciary does not reflect the people it serves. They asked for serious consideration of minority applicants after nearly five years without a minority appointment to the bench.

The Colorado Judicial Branch announced Wednesday that District Judge Deborah Eyler has been appointed to serve as chief judge in Pueblo's judicial district. It is believed that Eyler is the first woman named to the post in Pueblo history. 

In a state with a large ethnic population, the vast majority of California judges, including those in Ventura County, are white men, although women and minorities have been making gains, according to a recent state report...

The League of Women Voters of Bellingham/Whatcom County will be sponsoring what looks to be an interesting speech and panel discussion on Saturday, April 21. State Supreme Court Justice Steven Gonzalez will speak about the importance of fair and impartial courts and the role of diversity in enhancing the legal system.

To illustrate one major gap in "diversity," all members of the court, if they wanted to attend next autumn's Harvard-Yale football game and support their alma mater law schools, would all fit cozily on one side of the grandstand or the other. That's right. Eight members of the Court earned their law degrees from either Harvard or Yale. And one, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, attended Harvard Law as well but switched to Columbia Law to take her degree.

 Reno attorney Miranda Du was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday as Nevada's newest U.S. District Court judge, becoming the first Asian Pacific American to serve on the federal bench in the state.

Nearly 10 months after her nomination by President Barack Obama, attorney Susie Morgan won Senate confirmation Wednesday to a seat on the New Orleans Federal District Court. The vote was 96-1. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who pushed for Morgan's  nomination, apologized to her for the long delay, saying it had nothing to with her qualifications. Like so many other Obama nominees, Landrieu said, Morgan's confirmation was held up by politics as Republicans stalled confirmation of nominees by the Democratic president.

Most California judges are white and male, but Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said she believes there is a "developing trend" toward more diversity on the bench. Find out more from Gavel Grab. 

In celebration of Black History Month, Justice at Stake honors the great achievements of African Americans who played a vital role in American legal history. To view the new JAS web page, click here.

After a filibuster was cut off, the Senate voted 94-5 to confirm Judge Adalberto Jordan to the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, making him the first Cuban-American to sit on the bench. Read more in Gavel Grab.

Justice at Stake hailed the appointment of Steven Gonzalez to the Washington Supreme Court, where he has become the first Mexican American justice to serve in the state’s history. Read Gavel Grab for more. 

Retiring Indiana Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard vowed to "beat the bushes" in efforts to get a diverse list of nominees for the all-male court's new vacancy. Learn more from Gavel Grab.

A federal appeals court Monday extended its decision to seal the videos of last year's same-sex marriage trial while it decides whether releasing the recordings would enhance the public's right to know about the legal system or endanger witnesses who favored Proposition 8. Read more...

The Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness has found that fewer minorities are employed as court personnel in comparison to the general population of minorities. Read more...

Cleo Elaine Powell broke new ground Friday when she was formally sworn in as the first African-American woman on the 232-year-old Virginia Supreme Court. Read more...

President Obama is the first White House occupant in history who hasn’t picked a majority of white male judges for lifetime appointments on the federal bench. For more, see Gavel Grab. 

Goodwin Liu, who could not get an up-or-down Senate vote on his U.S. appeals court nomination for more than a year, won confirmation to the California Supreme Court after what Liu called "a mere 36 days." Check out Gavel Grab.

In one week the New York Times has published hard-hitting editorials on the state court funding crisis, ABA recusal guidelines and religious intolerance toward a Muslim judge nominee. See Gavel Grab for more.

David Boies and Ted Olson, lead attorneys in the American Foundation for Equal Rights' federal challenge to Proposition 8, accepted the American Bar Association Medal today. It is the organization's highest honor.
 

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this new piece in the New York Times, which is headlined "For Obama, a Record on Diversity but Delays on Judicial Confirmations."  Here is how the piece starts:

President Obama  made history when he nominated Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court. He did it again with his second nominee, Elena Kagan, raising the number of women on the nation’s highest court to three.

President Obama is getting good marks for his nominations that have brought greater diversity to the federal bench. Yet there’s also a cost, some observers say. See Gavel Grab for details.