Better Too Much Than Not Enough : Women of Color on the Federal Bench

It is well established that the federal judiciary has been an overwhelmingly White and male institution since its creation and continues to be so today. Even as presidents of both parties have looked to diversify their judicial nominees, this has tended to result in the appointment of White women and men of color rather than women of color. Using data on the confirmed federal district and circuit court judges from presidents Clinton through Trump, we assess how the backgrounds of women of color nominated to the federal judiciary compare with those of other appointees. The results indicate that, compared to White male judges, women of color judges accrue more types of professional experience before their appointments, are more likely to have had prior experience as a judge, and are generally nominated earlier in their careers

May I Interject: An Investigation into Gendered Oral Argument Patterns in Federal Appellant Courts

Oral argument has always been an integral part of any appellate courts’ function. For most of the court’s history, both the advocates arguing before the Court and the judges presiding over the court were extremely similar; all being white males. However, the late 20th and 21st centuries have diversified both of these groups, enabling the study of communication patterns as they relate to gender and race. Thus the question of interest: Are there differences in the way that female and male advocates are treated by judges during oral argument within the federal appellate court system

Why Do Interest Groups Engage the Judiciary? Policy Wishes and Structural Needs

We test two competing explanations in order to answer the question: Why do organized interests choose to engage in advocacy behavior? The first turns on the notion that concerns with policy success are the principal forces affecting a group's choice. To a lesser degree, issues of group maintenance have also been identified as entering into organized interests' decisional calculus. Copyright (c) 2006 Southwestern Social Science Association.