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The Demographics of the Judiciary
Recently, I read an article (with the National Lawyers Guild Student Group)
that inspired me to go look up the demographics of the judiciary (specifically
the federal appellate courts), which I was going to try to put in the Crier, but
really I don't think I'm going to get around to that before finals are over, but
procrastinating with facebook I can do - but I'll first tell a little story
about how I got to deciding to procrastinating with that right now...
I was just reading an article about a project that Stanford Law School students
started (Group Info: www.betterlegalprofession.org/
Facebook group name: Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession) (Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/us/29bar.html?em&ex=1193889600&en=4b0cd84261ffe5b4&ei=5087%0A)
The idea is interesting, a group of students trying to call out large firms on
their lack of diversity. I find the article interesting because of this quote:
“As bad as their numbers are,” Professor Amar said of the firms, “the relevant
applicant pool of law students with top grades is more white and Asian still.”
Okay, there are the obvious reasons why this stupid quote would irritate me, but
the reason prompting me to put in the statistics is because I think it's easy to
buy into an aspect of the model minority myth for Asian Americans, - that Asian
Americans may face less discrimination in education and employment. The model
minority myth tells us that this wide and varied population is smarter than
average (or that they work harder) this translates to the idea that they are not
discriminated against, especially in college admissions. But when it comes to
representation in the judiciary, even if Asians are in colleges in higher
numbers, it doesn't translate to getting the jobs. Asians have the second least
amount of representation in the federal judiciary (0.7% - 2nd to Native
Americans). Based on this, I cannot help but wonder if Asian Americans are
really getting the positions at law firms in numbers at all representative of
their proportions of the U.S. demographics (and then of course if we were really
going to get into it, we should actually question the breakdown by Vietnamese,
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc., in order to really understand the issues faced
by this widely varied group).
Getting to the Statistics
I only include the appellate courts for the federal courts, in part due to time,
but also because these are the courts that make law that other courts have to
follow and those outside their jxn look to for guidance. it's very interesting
to me that a the people who interpret the laws are overrepresented by white
males (they compose about 70% of the judiciary and a little more than 30% of the
U.S. population). My gut and reading cases like Ledbetter and the PICS
cases, make me think the overreprestnation of any group is problematic for
actually achieving justice. I wish I had the hours in the day to truly analyze
the impact that this make-up can have on civil rights issues, all forms or
racial/ethnic and/or sexual harassment, and a variety of access to justice
issues.
Overall Demographics in Washington State & the US
U.S. Racial/Ethnic Make-Up Per 2000 Census -
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/53000.html
White persons, 85.0% (WA) 80.2% (US)
White persons not Hispanic, 77.1% (WA) 66.9% (US)
Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, 8.8% (WA) 14.4% (US)
Black persons, 3.5% (WA) 12.8% (US)
American Indian and Alaska Native persons, 1.7% (WA) 1.0% (US)
Asian persons, 6.4% (WA) 4.3% (US)
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.5%(WA) 0.2% (US)
Persons reporting two or more races, 3.0% (WA) 1.5% (US)
Assuming that the population is 50% female and 50% male, white, nonhispanic men
would be approximately 35% of the U.S. population.
The Demographic Make-Up of the Federal Judiciary (
Source:
http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj
- search criteria was sitting judges; race/ethnicity; gender and the relevant
court.
Caveat: the data was gathered by doing individual queries, while there are
possibilities for typos, I did my best, and you can go to the website and check
anything that might seem off. Also it's not in pretty designs or graphs or
anything. Basically, it's the prettiest I'm willing to make time for in the
midst of procrastinating my three papers and finals prep.
US Supreme Court: 1 female, 8 males = 9 total. 22.2% Nonwhite male -
11.1% female and 11.1% Male of color (African American)
All Sitting Judges in the Federal Judiciary
- All sitting African American judges: female 28; male 82
- All sitting Asian American judges: female 1; male 8
- All sitting Hispanic judges: female 17; male 52
- All sitting Native American judges: female 0; male 1
- All sitting White judges 189 female; male 901
- Out of a total of 1,277 judges, 376 are women (of any color/ethnicity) and men
of any color/ethnicity other than white = 29%
All Sitting Judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 6 females; 12 males
- Asian American judges: 0 females; 1 male
- Hispanic judges: 3 female; 11 males
- Native American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- White judges 44 female; 190 males
- Out of a total of 267 judges, 77 are women (of any color/ethnicity) and men of
any color/ethnicity other than white = 29%
All Sitting Judges in the U.S. District Court
- African American judges: 22 females; 69 males
- Asian American judges:1 female; 7 males
- Hispanic judges: 14 female; 41 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 1 male
- White judges 143 females; 704 males
- Out of a total of 1,002 judges, 298 are women (of any color/ethnicity) and men
of any color/ethnicity other than white = 30%
Circuit by Circuit Breakdown:
D.C. Circuit (Washington)
All Sitting Judges for the D.C. Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 2 females; 1 male
- Asian American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 1 females; 10 males
1st Circuit (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island)
First Circuit Court of Appeals:
- African American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- Asian American judges:0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 1 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 1 females; 8 males
2nd Circuit (Connecticut, New York, Vermont)
Second Circuit Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 1 females; 1 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 1 female; 1 male
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 3 females; 15 males
3rd Circuit (Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, U.S. Virgin Islands)
Third Circuit Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 0 females; 1 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female;0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 1 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 4 females; 15 males
4th Circuit (Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West
Virginia)
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 1 females; 1 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 2 females; 10 males
5th Circuit (Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas)
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 0 females; 1 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 3 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 4 females; 11 males
6th Circuit (Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee)
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 0 females; 3 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 6 females; 18 males
7th Circuit (Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin)
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 1 females; 0 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 3 females; 11 males
8th Circuit (Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota,
South Dakota)
Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 0 females; 1 male
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 1 female; 18 males
9th Circuit (Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana,
Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Washington)
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
- African American judges: 1 females; 1 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 1 males
- Hispanic judges: 2 female; 4 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 9 females; 32 males
All District Judges in Washington
- African American judges: 0 females; 3 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 1 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 3 females; 38 males
Oregon District Judges
- African American judges: 0 females; 1 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 3 females; 22 males
Nevada District Judges
- African American judges: 1 females; 0 males
- Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
- Hispanic judges: 0 female; 1 males
- Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
- White judges 0 females; 21 males
Montana District Judges
-African American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-White judges 0 females; 5 males
Idaho District Judges
-African American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-White judges 0 females; 2 males
Hawaii District Judges
-African American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-White judges 1 females; 4 males
California District Judges (Total 84; 65 male)
-African American judges: 4 females; 10 males
-Asian American judges: 0 female; 6 males
-Hispanic judges: 1 female; 5 males
-Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-White judges 13 females; 44 males
Arizona District Judges (Total 20; 16 male)
-African American judges: 0 females; 1 males
-Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Hispanic judges: 1 female; 2 males
-Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-White judges 3 females; 13 males
Alaska District Judges (Total 7; 7 male)
-African American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-White judges 0 females; 7 males
10th Circuit (Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, Wyoming)
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
-African American judges: 0 females; 1 males
-Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Hispanic judges: 0 female; 1 males
-Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-White judges 3 females; 17 males
11th Circuit (Alabama, Florida, Georgia)
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals
-African American judges: 0 females; 1 males
-Asian American judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Hispanic judges: 0 female; 0 males
-Native American judges: 0 females; 0 males
-White judges 4 females; 12 males
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