It is a historic moment with the double celebration of the US Supreme Court welcoming its first Black female member – Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, and four female associate justices serving in the Supreme Court for the first time.
Source: https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/justices.aspx
After President Trump appointed female Asso. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, President Biden upped the game for gender empowerment in the US Supreme Court and followed in the path of President Obama in making concrete and long-lasting changes in diversity in the US Supreme Court: a black female member and four service female members. For the first time, since 1789, the balance seemed a bit fair – four out of nine members were female.
I am a huge passionate of understanding the American constitution, perhaps even more than the British Common Law system and non-codified constitutions which did not come down well with me when I first studied law in 2002. Check out my earlier blog on Remembering Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Asso. Justice Jackson was nominated on 25th February 2022 and confirmed on 7th April, and will take office on 30th June, replacing Asso. Justice Stephen Breyer when his retirement will take effect.
What is for the future?
Should Asso. Justice Clarence Thomas (a George HW Bush appointee and the senior-most associate justice) retire during President Biden’s presidency, the latter will have more opportunities to make significant changes in the US Supreme Court members’ demographics:
- A Democratic appointee would balance the Republican v/s Democratic appointees in the US Supreme Court – currently the US supreme court Justices are six Republican appointees v/s 3 Democratic appointees. This balance is crucial given the positioning of the US as a superpower.
- It would be an opportunity to nominate the first Native American or Asian American to the Supreme Court
- However, there is no Native American Indian or Asian American judge on the Court of Appeals. Would this lead to a non-judge appointee for affirmative action towards diversity? This would not be the first time though.
While we celebrate the four serving women as associate justices, alarm bells should ring on the fact that there has never been a female Chief Justice in the US Supreme Court. I have high hopes that within the next ten years, there will be a female Chief Justice in the US Supreme Court.
I have written this article to share my personal opinion, based on my passion for law and American politics, I am by far not an expert on this matter. All reported facts are accurate to my knowledge. This article was purely from a female representation in the US Supreme Court, and not Democratic v/s Republican interests.
References:
- Justices by court https://www.oyez.org/courts
- Examining the Demographic Compositions of US Circuit and District Courts https://www.americanprogress.org/article/examining-demographic-compositions-u-s-circuit-district-courts/
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