Celebrating Milestones in Women on the Judiciary; But There Is Always More to Be Done

The President should be applauded for the giant leap forward he has made in placing women in federal judgeships. Indeed, the President nominated and seen confirmed a higher percentage of female nominees than any other president in U.S. history, according to a new report from Alliance for Justice.

The Report contains numerous causes for celebration:

• Forty-two percent (42%) of President Obama’s confirmed judges have been women—almost double the rate of President George W. Bush (22%) and almost fifty percent greater than that of President Clinton (29%).
• President Obama already has nominated and seen confirmed more minority women judges (33) than President George W. Bush (22) or President Clinton (23), and has quintupled the number of Asian Pacific American women judges (from 2 to 10).
• Nine district courts now have their first female judges: the District of Wyoming; the District of Alaska; the Eastern District of California; the Eastern District of Washington; the Middle District of North Carolina; the District of Vermont; the Southern District of Iowa; the District of Maine; and the Middle District of Louisiana.

Nevertheless, as the NWLC has chronicled, much work remains to be done.

• 53 of the 164 active judges currently sitting on the thirteen federal courts of appeal are female (about 32%). When broken down by circuit, women’s representation on several of these individual courts is even lower than on the courts of appeals overall:
• There is currently only one female judge among the Tenth Circuit’s ten active members (10%).
• Women are also vastly underrepresented on the Eighth Circuit (where they make up 18% of judges), the Third Circuit (about 21%) and the Fourth Circuit (about 27%).
• Approximately 30% of active United States district (or trial) court judges are women.

• There are over a dozen districts that have not had a woman judge in their entire history.
• These include the Middle District of Alabama; the Middle District of Georgia; the District of Idaho; the Southern District of Illinois; the Southern District of Mississippi; the District of Montana; the Western District of New York; the District of New Hampshire; the Western District of North Carolina; the District of North Dakota; the Eastern District of Oklahoma; the Eastern District of Tennessee; the Western District of Virginia; and the Eastern District of Wisconsin.
• It is good news indeed that female nominees to the District of Montana; the Western District of New York; the District of New Hampshire; and the Eastern District of Tennessee are currently pending.

In sum, thanks to the President for this important progress and thanks to AFJ for highlighting this important issue.