ACS Report on Judicial Diversity
The American Constitution Society recently released a report, The Gavel Gap, on the demographics of state court judges, highlighting the discrepancies among the demographics of our communities, law school graduates, and judges on the bench. Overall, the report finds that courts are not representative of neither our communities generally nor the legal community specifically. As the Brennan Center puts it, this is “troubling because diversity is essential to a properly functioning judiciary. A court that reflects a variety of backgrounds brings a wider array of experiences to bear in its decision-making, and encourages confidence that the judicial system is fair and open to all.”
Where people of color make up roughly four in ten people in the country, fewer than two in ten judges are people of color. While women make up half the nation and about half of law school graduates, they represent slightly less than a third of state court judges. The differences are even more dramatic when the disparities are examined regionally or at the state level. The Gavel Gap has made their data available for review and it offers greater detail.
A few summers ago, a Public Interest Law Institute fellow at Chicago Appleseed, Leslie Cornell, initiated a similar investigation into the judges in Cook County. We learned that, as of 2013, Cook County is approaching gender equality in sitting judges: 45% of Circuit Court judges were women, but the make-up of our court does not reflect the make-up of our county. Although the bench is 45% women, the county is nearly 52% women.
The disparity holds true for other characteristics of both judges and the general population. 15.11% of Cook County judges were African-American, whereas the county is closer to 25% African-American. Asian-Americans represent 7.4% of the county and 3.75% of judges, while Hispanic or Latino persons comprise 25.2% of the county and merely 5.8% of the bench.
Like the ACS researchers, CAFFJ considered not simply the demographics of sitting judges but also the methods of judicial selection which brought the judges to the bench. We learned some unexpected things. Our data tends to show that diversity is increasing on the bench, even if it does not yet reflect our community.
Cook County has several routes to the trial court: election to the bench on a countywide ballot (Circuit election); election to the bench on a ballot limited to a subcircuit division of the county (Subcircuit election); election to the bench through a peer election process managed by the Office of the Chief Judge (Associate Judge election); appointment by the Illinois Supreme Court to a vacancy (appointment). The Subcircuit elections were added to the ballot in 1992 with the goal of improving diversity on the bench.
Our data suggests that while the Associate Judge process has some advantage with regard to promoting overall diversity, no process currently in place is ensuring that the bench reflects the population. We need a thorough analysis of each judicial selection process in Cook County to determine how each can lead to a high quality and diverse bench.
The political process, of course, is only one piece of the picture. To build a diverse bench, law schools must graduate diverse students. Because over 56% of judges in Cook County previously served as State’s Attorneys, Public Defenders or other government attorneys, these agencies need to hire and promote diverse attorneys. And private firms must step up, as well; according to Bureau of Labor statistics, 88% of lawyers are white, making the law is one of the least racially diverse professions in the nation.
The ACS report makes critical data on our courts available to the public. We hope continued research on the issue leads to solutions.