Little diversity in judicial picks
Trump uses lifetime appointments to reshape courts with conservatives
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is nominating white men to America’s federal courts at a rate not seen in nearly 30 years, threatening to reverse a slow transformation toward a judiciary that more closely reflects the nation’s diversity.
So far, 91 percent of Trump’s nominees are white, and 81 percent are male, an Associated Press analysis has found.
Three of every four are white men, with few African-Americans and Hispanics in the mix. The last president to nominate a similarly homogenous group was George H.W. Bush.
The shift could prove to be one of Trump’s most enduring legacies. These are lifetime appointments, and Trump has inherited both an unusually high number of vacancies and an aging population of judges.
That puts him in position to significantly reshape the courts that decide thousands of civil rights, environmental, criminal justice and
other disputes across the country.
The White House has been upfront about its plans to quickly fill the seats with conservatives, and has made clear that judicial philosophy tops any concerns about shrinking racial or gender diversity.
Trump isn’t shy about his plans, calling his imprint on the courts an “untold story” of his presidency.
“Nobody wants to talk about it,” he says. “But when you think of it, that has consequences 40 years out.” He predicted at a recent Cabinet meeting, “A big percentage of the court will be changed by this administration over a very short period of time.”
Advocates for putting more women and racial minorities on the bench argue courts that more closely reflect the demographics of the population ensure a broader range of viewpoints and inspire greater confidence in rulings.
One court that has become a focus in the debate is the Eastern District of North Carolina, a region that, despite its sizable black population, has never had a black judge. A seat on that court has been open for more than a decade. George W. Bush named a white man, and Barack Obama nominated two black women, but none of those nominees came to a Senate vote.
Trump has renominated Bush’s choice: Thomas Farr, an attorney whose work defending North Carolina’s redistricting maps and a voter identification law has raised concerns among civil rights advocates.
Kyle Barry, senior policy counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said that when diversity is lacking, “there’s a clear perception where the courts are not a place people can go and vindicate their civil rights.”
In recent decades, Democrats have named more racial minorities and women on the courts. But even compared with his Republican predecessors’ choices, Trump’s nominees stand out. He has nominated the highest percentage of white judges in his first year since Ronald Reagan.
If he continues on his trend through his first term, he will be the first Republican since Herbert Hoover to name fewer women and minorities to the court than his GOP predecessor.
The AP reviewed 58 nominees to lifetime positions on appellate and district courts, as well as the Supreme Court, by the end of October. Fifty-three are white, three are Asian-American, one is Hispanic, and one is African-American. There are 47 men and 11 women. Thirteen have won Senate approval.
The numbers stand in contrast to those of Obama, who made diversifying the federal bench a priority. White men represented just 37 percent of judges confirmed during Obama’s two terms; nearly 42 percent of his judges were women.
Some of Obama’s efforts were thwarted by a GOP-led Senate that blocked all of the nominations he made in the final year as president, handing Trump a backlog of more than 100 open seats and significant sway over the courts’ future.
Trump has moved aggressively to name new judges, getting off to a much quicker start than his predecessors. He nominated more than twice as many as Obama had at this point in his presidency. There have been clashes in the Senate over the nomination process, but GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has signaled he is committed to moving judicial nominees through.
Many of Trump’s white male nominees would replace white, male judges. But of the Trump nominees pending, more than a quarter are white males slated for seats that have been held by women or minorities. Of the eight seats vacant that had non-white judges, only one has a non-white nominee.
Trump has focused on judges with conservative resumes, and conservative groups have welcomed his picks.