California Bench Getting More Diverse, Report Says

California’s judiciary is getting a little less white and male with the number of judges claiming Latino, Asian, black, American Indian, and other races increasing over the past 14 years.

The changes reflect retirements and other departures, new judicial appointments, and an increase in the number of trial court judges who voluntarily provided race/ethnicity information, the California Judicial Council said.

Less than 2% of judges didn’t provide racial and ethnic data, down from 9.9% who didn’t respond in 2006.

Whites represented 65.6% of judges last year, down from 70.1% in 2006, the council’s report released on Monday said. White justices ...