70% confirmed/fed bench women&minorities: Obama's Push for Equality
Obama's push for diversity on the bench leads surge in female and minority judges - with only one in four appointees white males
- Bill Clinton had 48% and George W. Bush had 33%
- Obama put three women on high court for first time
- He confirmed first openly gay man to federal judgeship
By MARK DUELL
Barack Obama is making his mark on the U.S. federal judiciary by pushing through an unprecedented diversification of the system.
Nearly three out of every four people the President has confirmed to the federal bench are women or minorities.
His efforts are unique as he is the first U.S. president who has not selected a majority of white males for lifetime judgeships.
Changing faces: Judge Sonia Sotomayor beams in 2009 as President Obama applauds her as her Supreme Court nomination is announced
More than 70 per cent of his confirmed judicial nominees during his first two years were ‘non-traditional,’ or non-white male nominees.
That far exceeds the percentages in the two-term administrations of Bill Clinton at 48.1 per cent and George W. Bush at 32.9 per cent.
‘It is an absolutely remarkable diversity achievement,’ said Sheldon Goldman, author of the book Picking Federal Judges.
Professor Goldman, of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is only counting judges once - even if they fit more than one category.
The White House has been touting its efforts to diversify the bench during Mr Obama's tenure.
The President won Senate confirmation of the first Latina to the Supreme Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Trailblazer: Senate last week confirmed the first African-American woman to sit on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Bernice Donald
And with the confirmation of Justice Elena Kagan he has put three women on the high court for the first time.
Federal judge diversification
- OBAMA
- 98 nominees confirmed
- 70 per cent non-white males
- 21 per cent African-American
- 11 per cent Hispanic
- 7 per cent Asian-American
- 47 per cent female
- BUSH
- 322 confirmed
- 33 per cent non-white males
- 18 per cent minorities
- 22 per cent female
- CLINTON
- 372 judges confirmed
- 48 per cent non-white males
- 25 per cent minorities
- 29 per cent female
The Obama administration also nominated and won confirmation of the first openly gay man to a federal judgeship.
It was the former Clinton administration official J. Paul Oetken, who was confirmed to an opening in New York City.
Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised that confirmation as a ‘critical step’ to increase diversity.
The first openly homosexual federal judge was Deborah A. Batts in New York City, a lesbian nominated by Clinton in 1994.
Of the 98 Obama nominees confirmed to date, the administration says 21 per cent are African-American and 11 per cent are Hispanic.
Seven per cent are Asian-American and almost half - 47 percent - are women.
By comparison, of the 322 judges confirmed during George W. Bush's presidency, 18 per cent were minorities and 22 per cent were female.
Of the 372 judges confirmed during Clinton's terms, 25 per cent were minorities and 29 per cent were women.
In these figures, some judges fit into more than one category.
Better: President Obama's record of ‘non-traditional’ confirmed judicial nominees far exceeds that of former presidents Bill Clinton, left and George W. Bush, right
The Senate last week confirmed the first African-American woman to sit on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Bernice Donald.
'It is an absolutely remarkable diversity achievement'
Sheldon Goldman, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Earlier, she was the first African-American woman elected as a judge in Tennessee and appointed as federal bankruptcy judge in the nation.
Mr Obama also has doubled the number of Asian-Americans sitting on the federal bench.
Denny Chin was added to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York as the only active Asian federal appeals court judge.
There currently are 14 Asian-American federal judges on the 810-judge roster.
Obama has nominated as many as were sitting on the bench when he was inaugurated.
For more than 140 years, there were no females or minorities among the nation's federal judges.
The first female federal appellate judge was Florence Allen, who gained her seat on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1934.
The first female U.S. District Court judge was Burnita Shelton Matthews, who took the bench in Washington D.C. in 1950.
Judges: The U.S. Supreme Court in 2010. Top (l-r): Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan. Bottom (l-r): Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg
William Henry Hastie Jr. was the first African-American U.S. District Court judge, sitting in the Virgin Islands in 1937.
He was later elevated to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1949.
Reynaldo G. Garza became the first Hispanic federal judge when he was appointed to the U.S. District Court in Texas in 1961.
'The more diverse the courts, the more confidence people have in our judicial system. Having a diverse judiciary also enriches the decision-making process'
Nan Aron, Alliance for Justice
Herbert Choy became the first Asian-American federal judge when he was appointed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1971.
Thurgood Marshall became the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court in 1967.
Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman to be elevated to the nation's highest court in 1981.
‘I think it's always good to have diverse perspectives, whether it's gender, sexuality or ideology,’ Professor Tobias said.
Nan Aron, of the liberal Alliance for Justice, added: ‘The more diverse the courts, the more confidence people have in our judicial system.
‘Having a diverse judiciary also enriches the decision-making process.’
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