In selecting a Supreme Court nominee, President Obama will have a more diverse pool of judges to choose from than his predecessors did, largely because the number of women on the federal bench has increased dramatically over the past two decades, the AP/Kansas City Star reports. Just two of the 110 justices that have served on the Supreme Court are women: former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and current Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Most of the candidates Obama is considering are women.
According to the AP/Star, there are 212 full-time female judges serving in the federal courts, meaning that women make up more than one quarter of the federal judiciary. In contrast, there were about 40 female federal judges during the Reagan administration. In addition, women make up at least 40% of the judges on 22 of the 53 state supreme courts, another likely source for nominees. The AP/Star reports that the increase in the number of female judges reflects the rise in the number of practicing female lawyers; women currently account for about one-third of lawyers and nearly half of all law school graduates. Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women's Law Center, said, "I wouldn't say the doors have swung open as fully as we would like." She added, "Nonetheless, there are superb women in the judiciary, academia and private practice."
The AP/Star also reports that Obama might seek to increase racial diversity on the Supreme Court, as only two of the 110 justices have been black men: current Justice Clarence Thomas and former Justice Thurgood Marshall. There has never been a Hispanic, Asian-American or American Indian justice (Sherman, AP/Kansas City Star, 5/20).
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