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60 Howard L.J. 685 (2016-2017)
Laying the Foundation: How President Obama's Judicial Nominations Have Paved the Way for a More Diverse Supreme Court

handle is hein.journals/howlj60 and id is 715 raw text is: ESSAY Laying the Foundation: How President Obama's Judicial Nominations Have Paved the Way for a More Diverse Supreme Court APRIL G. DAWSON* INTRODUCTION The United States Supreme Court has seen significant changes in its makeup in the past 50 years. While the Court historically has been a white male, protestant institution, it is currently made up of five men, three women, five Catholics, three Jews, one African American, and one Latina. President Obama can take credit for a significant portion of the current diversity of the Court, having appointed two of the three female Justices currently on the bench, and having ap- pointed the first Latina Justice. In addition to having made a direct impact on the diversity of the current Court, President Obama may have also made an impact on the diversity of the Supreme Court in the future. Increasingly, Supreme Court Justices are being selected from the ranks of federal appellate judges. Thus, if the federal appellate bench is diverse, it increases the likelihood that future presidents will select diverse Supreme Court nominees. This Essay will review President Obama's judicial appointments to the federal appellate and district courts to determine if he increased the diversity of the federal courts * Associate Professor of Law, North Carolina Central University School of Law. The author would like to thank her research assistants, Jasmine Cobb, DeShantell Singleton, and Charles Vail, and the Howard Law Journal. 2017 Vol. 60 No. 3 685

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