President Trump’s search for deeply conservative federal judges appears to have eliminated most African Americans and Hispanics from the running.
Among Trump’s first 87 judicial nominees, only one is African American and one is Hispanic. Five are Asian Americans. Eighty are white.
The demographics signal a return to the 1980s, when 94 percent of President Ronald Reagan’s confirmed judges were white. Since then, minority enrollment in law schools has nearly tripled.
From USA Today. Story by Richard Wolf.
The last four presidents, both Republican and Democratic, filled at least 10 percent of open seats on the federal bench with black or Hispanic nominees. More than one-third of President Barack Obama’s confirmed judges were minorities.
“It is most unfortunate,” says Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “It turns the clock back on years of work and effort that went into promoting judicial diversity.”
The numbers became more striking Monday, when Trump nominated seven men and two women to federal appellate and district courts.
“Surprise!” Obama’s former White House deputy counsel, Christopher Kang, tweeted. “All 9 of Trump’s judicial nominees today appear to be white.”
Surprise! All 9 of Trump's judicial nominees today appear to be white.
He still has nominated just one African American for a lifetime judgeship. #BlackHistoryMonth #CourtsMatter #DiversityMatters pic.twitter.com/WMVJvq1XB2— Christopher Kang (@cdkang76) February 12, 2018
Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice, suspects the goal is to have strict conservatives at all costs.
“These nominees are the product of years-long grooming and a networking process that was put in place by the Federalist Society,” Aron says. “They are picking from the most ideologically extreme end of the spectrum.”
Unlike President George W. Bush, who chose 18 percent minority judges, the new administration has made an effort to find candidates who adhere to the twin judicial philosophies of originalism and textualism — strict adherence to the Constitution and federal statutes.
“Working with the Senate, we are appointing judges who will interpret the Constitution as written, including a great new Supreme Court justice and more circuit court judges than any new administration in the history of our country,” Trump said in his State of the Union address last month. He cited gun rights and religious liberty as priorities.
“President Trump had more new circuit court judges confirmed in his first year than any prior president, a testimony to the fine quality of the nominees he sends here to the Senate,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
Alabama’s Terry Moorer is the lone African American nominee, and Texas’s Fernando Rodriguez the lone Hispanic. Both have been nominated for district courts.
The trend toward more white judges already is having a noticeable effect in the nation’s courts:
• Trump has selected white nominees for 10 seats that Obama unsuccessfully sought to fill with minorities.
• The 5th Circuit appeals court soon will have no Hispanic judges, down from three during Obama’s first term. Nearly four in 10 Texas residents are Hispanic.
• The 7th Circuit appeals court now has no minority judges at all. Illinois is about 40% minority, while Indiana and Wisconsin are about 20%.
“Why can’t they find any diversity, or why aren’t they trying to find any diversity?” says Kang, who managed Obama’s judicial nominations for four years. “There are some really conservative judges out there who are also people of color.
“If the conservative judicial philosophy is so alienating to people of color, who will soon be a majority in this country, I think that’s an indictment of that judicial philosophy itself.”
Read more at USA Today.
"Why can’t they find any diversity, or why aren’t they trying to find any diversity? If the conservative judicial philosophy is so alienating to people of color, who will soon be a majority in this country, I think that’s an indictment of that judicial philosophy itself.” — me https://t.co/cw13uOcfGV
— Christopher Kang (@cdkang76) February 13, 2018
Happy African American History Month!
Meet Thomas Farr, Trump's pick for a lifetime court seat. He helped draft NC’s voter suppression law, defended racist gerrymandering + may have lied to senators about aiding a campaign to disenfranchise black voters.https://t.co/Ngh4jANbSb
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) February 1, 2018
“We are taking about the potential to transform our court system for generations to come.” @KristenClarkeJD pic.twitter.com/bPg6InF729
— NAACP (@NAACP) January 31, 2018
Trump boasts he's "appointing judges who will interpret the Constitution as written."
His lifetime judicial picks so far include xenophobes, people rated "not qualified" to serve and a guy who wants to take away black people's voting rights.https://t.co/1iG0HKeLWP
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) January 31, 2018
Like his cabinet. Like his organization. Like everything he does.
— Ken Padgett (@trngchief11) February 13, 2018
And who is surprised about this?
— fvaldez115 (@fvaldez115) February 13, 2018
Americans elected a business man thinking things will changehttps://t.co/Bsig8AkwrU
— DJ Burn (@DJBurn77) February 13, 2018
Well, this is one way to make sure judges of different “heritages” don’t judge him. Trump is straight trash… and he’s trying to pull America in the dumpster with him. pic.twitter.com/zgzA99oSia
— Corey Reynolds (@coreyreynoldsLA) February 13, 2018