Nearly half of all women and half of all black people who have ever served on the federal bench were put there by President Clinton. That’s among the findings on the makeup of the federal judiciary contained in a statistics-laden report issued on March 16 by the Alliance for Justice, a liberal organization that praises Mr. Clinton for the diversification he has achieved but also criticizes him and the Senate for not diversifying enough.
For example, the Alliance notes that in six years as president, Mr. Clinton has appointed five Asian-American judges�as many as presidents Bush, Reagan and Carter combined appointed in 16 years�and 53 blacks, just two fewer than his three predecessors’ total. On the other hand, only five of Mr. Clinton’s black appointees were to the federal appellate courts, compared with nine circuit appointees by President Carter. The Alliance notes that the U.S. courts of appeals for the 4th, 7th and Federal circuits remain all-white, while no blacks sit on the 1st, 9th or 10th circuits, and no Latinos sit on the 3rd, 6th, 8th or D.C. circuits.
