<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>A major legacy of the Obama presidency was the mark he left on the federal courts with respect to increasing judicial diversity. In particular, President Obama's appointments of women to the federal judiciary exceeded all previous presidents in terms of both absolute numbers and as a share of all judges; he also appointed a record-setting number of women of color to the lower federal courts. In this Article, I take an intersectional approach to exploring variation in the professional backgrounds, qualifications, and Senate confirmation experiences of Obama's female appeals court appointees, comparing them with George W. Bush and Bill Clinton appointees. These data reveal that women of color appointed by Obama differ from both white women and minority men in terms of ABA ratings, the types of professional experiences they bring with them, and whether they were confirmed by a roll call vote.</p>
</abstract>

A major legacy of the Obama presidency was the mark he left on the federal courts with respect to increasing judicial diversity. In particular, President Obama's appointments of women to the federal judiciary exceeded all previous presidents in terms of both absolute numbers and as a share of all judges; he also appointed a record-setting number of women of color to the lower federal courts. In this Article, I take an intersectional approach to exploring variation in the professional backgrounds, qualifications, and Senate confirmation experiences of Obama's female appeals court appointees, comparing them with George W. Bush and Bill Clinton appointees. These data reveal that women of color appointed by Obama differ from both white women and minority men in terms of ABA ratings, the types of professional experiences they bring with them, and whether they were confirmed by a roll call vote.

Assessing President Obama's Appointment of Women to the Federal Appellate Courts

British Journal of American Legal Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Assessing President Obama's Appointment of Women to the Federal Appellate Courts"}

A major legacy of the Obama presidency was the mark he left on the federal courts with respect to increasing judicial diversity. In particular, President...

Assessing President Obama's Appointment of Women to the Federal Appellate Courts

Published Online: Nov 17, 2021

Page range: 433 - 455

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bjals-2021-0008

Keywords
Federal Judges, Intersectionality, Diversity, Obama, Women

© 2021 Laura P. Moyer, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Assessing President Obama's Appointment of Women to the Federal Appellate Courts

Published Online: Nov 17, 2021

Page range: 433 - 455

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bjals-2021-0008

KeywordsFederal Judges, Intersectionality, Diversity, Obama, Women

© 2021 Laura P. Moyer, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Federal Judges, Intersectionality, Diversity, Obama, Women