More Black Women Ascend to Appellate Courts, While Men Stall (1)

The presence of Black men serving as active judges on the federal appellate courts has stalled in the past 10 years, even as President Joe Biden has prioritized demographic diversity in his judicial nominations and almost doubled the number of Black women on the circuit courts.

Several Black male appellate judges have assumed a form of semi-retirement or entirely left the bench under Biden, who’s appointed one Black man and 13 Black women to the circuit courts after four years in which President Donald Trump appointed no Black appellate judges.

While greater representation of Black women in the appellate ranks ...