State Supreme Court Representation Gaps
11 of 12 Southern states have supreme courts that lack the racial diversity of the state’s population.
Underrepresentation of people of color among state supreme court justices, May 2023
Percentage point difference between % of population and % of state supreme court justices who are non-white
Source: Brennan Center for Justice. Note: "Non-white" includes individuals who are Black, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, or multiracial. White is limited to non-Hispanic white individuals.
State supreme courts are highly influential institutions, making final decisions that impact the day-to-day lives of Americans on a wide array of critical issues including voting rights and the conduct of elections, healthcare access, public education, and more. They are a critical part of governmental checks and balances, and a diverse judiciary promotes a more robust, deliberative process and richer jurisprudence, benefiting from judges who have seen problems from different angles.1 However, in 39 states, the state supreme court lacks the racial and ethnic diversity of the populations they represent.
Of the 12 Southern states, all but Florida have supreme courts that are less racially diverse than their state’s population. There are 0 Black justices in 3 Southern states where Black residents make up at least 10% of the population (AL, AR, and TN). In Alabama, where 37% of the population is non-white, there are 0 non-white supreme court justices.
Many state supreme courts also show steep gender disparities. Nationwide, men hold 58% of state supreme court seats and in 6 states, there is only one woman on the supreme court bench. In the South, 7 state supreme courts are less than ⅓ female.
“Diversity Matters: Judicial Policy Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals”. Haire, Moyer. University of Virginia Press. 2015. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bthkq
