502 Chapter 14Chapter 14 || The CourtsThe Courtsnominees to the federal courts, only one was African American and only one was
Latino. Judges’ demographic backgrounds also became an issue in the 2016 campaign
when Trump said that federal district judge Gonzalo P. Curiel could not be objective in
the lawsuit concerning Trump University because Curiel was a Mexican (the judge was
born in Indiana and his parents are from Mexico).The Role of the Senate The Senate is the other half of the equation that determines
the composition of the federal courts. The Senate has shifted from a very active role in
providing “advice and consent” on court appointments to a passive role and then back
to an active role. One constant is that the Senate rarely rejects nominees because of
their qualifications; rather, it tends to reject them for political reasons. Of 28 Supreme
Court nominees rejected by the Senate in the history of the United States, only 2 were
turned down because they were seen as unqualified. Serious questions were also
raised about a third justice, Clarence Thomas, who had served for only 18 months
as a federal judge before being nominated to the Court. Thomas also was accused of
sexual harassment by former colleague Anita Hill. Hill’s testimony in 1991 predates
the #MeToo movement by 26 years and brought sexual harassment into the public
limelight for the first time. There were only two women in the Senate at the time and the
unsympathetic hearing she received before the all-male Senate Judiciary Committee
helped produce the “Year of the Woman” in House and Senate races the next year
(there are now 23 women in the Senate, an all-time high). Nonetheless, Thomas
ultimately won confirmation by a 52–48 vote, the second-narrowest successful marginFIGURE
14 .1Race and Gender on Federal Circuit Courts
Since the 1980s, the proportion of women on the federal bench has gone up fivefold while the percentage of white men has
plummeted by more than half. Do you think that descriptive representation in the judicial branch is important?Male FemaleTrumpObamaBushClinton79% (15)
67% (8)
76% (22)
40% (2)
21% (4)
33% (4)
24% (7)
60% (3)
White Black Hispanic AsianTrumpObamaBushClinton89% (17) 11% (2)
50% (6) 33% (4) 8% (1) 8% (1)
86% (25) 10% (3) 3% (1)
80% (4) 20% (1)
Number and percentage of U.S. Circuit Court nominees by race in president’s first year in o iceNumber and percentage of U.S. Circuit Court nominees by gender in president’s first year in o iceSource: Barry J. McMillion, “U.S. Circuit and District Court Nominations during President Trump’s First Year in Office: Comparative Analysis with
Recent Presidents,” Congressional Research Service, May 2, 2018, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45189.pdf (accessed 10/19/18).Full_15_APT_64431_ch14_488-529.indd 502 16/11/18 1:44 PM