Regarding Gender Equality in the U.S. Courts of Appeals - we've achieved equality in the DC Circuit

[Tx4obama]

With this week's senate confirmations of Patricia Millet and Nina Pillard to the DC Circuit there are now FIVE females and FIVE males on the court.

Although this will be short-lived this is an historic moment we can celebrate tonight
The ratio will change again when Robert L. Wilkins receives his confirmation vote in the future for the one current vacant seat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_District_of_Columbia_Circuit#Current_composition_of_court



Below is a current list of all the U.S. Courts of Appeals judges by Circuit and GENDER

Circuit - Male / Female

1st - 3/2
2nd - 9/4
3rd - 10/2
4th - 11/4
5th - 9/6
6th - 8/7
7th - 6/4
8th - 9/2
9th - 18/9
10th - 9/1
11th - 8/1
D.C - 5/5
FED - 8/4

---------


Thank You Senator Reid for invoking the nuclear option...

And Thank You President Obama for your attention to diversity regarding judicial nominations!

The graphic below includes ALL judicial nominations (Circuit and District Courts)




http://judicialnominations.org/statistics

[Tx4obama]

1. Just found this. Looks like President Obama noticed too

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
December 12, 2013

Statement by the President on the Confirmation of Nina Pillard

I thank the Senate for confirming Nina Pillard to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which for the first time, will have five active female judges on the bench. Throughout her career, Ms. Pillard has displayed an unwavering commitment to justice and integrity. Her landmark accomplishments on behalf of women and families include Supreme Court cases defending the constitutionality of the Family and Medical Leave Act and opening the doors of the Virginia Military Institute to female students. I’m confident she will be a diligent, thoughtful and judicious addition to the D.C. Circuit.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/12/12/statement-president-confirmation-nina-pillard

[niyad]

2. the numbers for the other districts is just depressing.

[Igel]

3. The numbers for the other districts are more in line with the candidate pool.

If 20% of the attorneys eligible for nomination are female, there are two ways of dealing with it. The first is to say that the judges should "look like" the candidate pool, and that's what you'd get if you just randomly picked eligible candidates or the "best qualified candidates". The second is to say that the judges should look like the population, but that means you need to preferentially pick from the candidate pool with an eye to the final outcome, and for that you need to start making things like race and gender part of the qualifications.

It's really a question of how you define "fair". For a lot of people, the question makes no sense.

[niyad]

4. or we can think that there is bias in determining whether females are qualified. nice try, though.

[dsc]

5. the problem with the limited number of qualified people

is that all the qualified people have other, often much higher paying, opportunities. It isn't like we can force them to be judges. Add in the long waits during which the nominees are severely restricted in what they can do, and one can easily see why it is hard to find both qualified and diverse appointees. Obama has done a great job here as Carter did in the late 70's. Carter appointed the most diverse set of appointees before Clinton by a mile and he had a much harder job to do in that regard.

[Tx4obama]

6. The number of women in other Circuits are low because Bush diid not appoint a high number of women

... during his eight years in office and now President Obama has to play catch up.

Only 22% of Circuit/District judicial appointments Bush made were female, so far Obama 42%