White House Now Touts Diversity of Appointees

[Tx4obama]

White House Now Touts Diversity of Appointees

Dec 17, 2013

The White House, which took flak early in the year for a lack of diversity in its top appointees, is crowing about an increase in women, racial minorities and gay appointees as the Senate continues clearing a backlog of President Barack Obama’s judicial nominations.

Most notable may be the rise in gay appointees to the courts. Before Mr. Obama, just one openly gay judge had been confirmed to the federal bench. Mr. Obama has nominated 10 openly gay federal judges, and seven have been confirmed.

The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which advocates for more of these appointments, says that more than 250 openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have been appointed since the start of the administration.

On the judicial front, the White House points to several other markers. Among them: 43% of Mr. Obama’s confirmed judges have been women, a higher rate than his predecessors. The list includes Patricia Millett and Nina Pillard, confirmed last week to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit after Senate Democrats pushed through a rule change to require just a simple majority for confirmation.

“The president wants the federal courts to look like America,” said White House spokesman Eric Schultz. He said diversity includes demographics as well as life experiences.

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Full article here: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/12/17/white-house-now-touts-diversity-of-appointees/

Judicial appointments as of 12/11/13



http://judicialnominations.org/statistics