Diversifying the Federal Bench: Presidential Patterns

Abstract

In this study of all federal district court appointments from 1977 through 2004, we examine a variety of possible influences on the selection of women and minorities to the federal bench. We find that women and minorities are more likely to be appointed to relatively large courts and to courts that have relatively few female or minority judges. The pool of eligible candidates also has a substantial and significant influence on the likelihood that a minority judge will be appointed. We find that political factors such as state ideology or the partisan composition of the U.S Senate delegation from the state have little influence. We conclude that presidents take race and gender into consideration when making judicial appointments and are particularly interested in diversifying relatively homogeneous courts; moreover, large courts may offer an opportunity to diversify with relatively few trade-offs in representation of other groups or interests. © 2005 by Taylor & Francis.

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