California Benches Increasingly Filled with Women, Judges of Color

California’s bench is becoming more diverse, with women now holding 37.6% of judgeships while the proportion of Asian, Black, and Hispanic has nearly doubled since 2006, the Judicial Council said Monday.

The changing face of the bench comes from a December 2020 voluntary survey of judges that includes gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, according to the data.

“As the first Asian-Filipina American and the second woman to serve as the state’s chief justice, I’m pleased that California’s judiciary continues to grow more diverse,” Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said in a statement.

The seven-member California Supreme Court has three women, ...