Question

Do you think representation on the bench from racial and ethnic minorities matters? Why or why not? What about gender, age, or sexual orientation? Why does diversity matter or not matter for judges?

Answer 1

Is justice truly blind—rendered without regard to wealth, race, sex, or other background characteristics. For centuries, that compelling idea has animated the self-concept of the legal profession in the West.

But many presume that the idea—symbolized by the blindfold that Lady Justice has worn since the seventeenth century

1) Scarcely depicts reality. It merely articulates, critics say, an often-unrealized aspiration toward impartiality. In the United States, the blind-justice conceit sup­ports the claim, deeply contested, that the country is a land of equality and opportunity for all. Langston Hughes, the Harlem Renaissance-era poet, exposed the contradiction between the ideal and the reality of American law when he proclaimed blacks “wise” to the idea “that Justice is a blind goddess.

”2 )“Her bandage hides two festering sores,” Hughes wrote, “that once perhaps were eyes.” Blind Lady Justice, he proposed, was no more than a national myth.

3) Well before and long after Hughes cast aspersions on the idea of impartial justice, commentators debated the question of whether and how certain categories of identity influence judging. Race matters, many presume, symbolically and substantively

4) Women speak in a different voice, psychologist Carol Gilligan famously and controversially claimed.

5) Using similar logic, others argued that female judges also are different. Women employ jurisprudential methods that yield distinctive insights and sometimes different outcomes than those of male colleagues.

6) Similarly, some presume that religious faith can inform the jurisprudence of Catholic, Jewish, or Muslim judges.

7) Others have suggested that sexual orientation might inform judicial decisionmaking, especially in cases pertaining to gender identity.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION:

Gender is a more relevant category of analysis, according to the research. Several studies show that in certain subject areas, the gender of jurists does affect judicial outcomes.

As compared to male judges, female judges are more supportive of “women’s issues,” particularly in cases alleging sex-based discrimination.

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON MINORITY JUDGES AFFECT CASE OUTCOMES :

In recent years, scholars have applied empirical methods associated with the field of political science to study judicial behavior. These scholars collect and code cases to ascertain whether judges’ gender and race correlate with judicial outcomes, generally or with respect to certain subject matters. These scholars are particularly interested in outcomes in the categories of cases that pertain to highly politically salient and controversial subject matters and that are therefore most likely to reveal a judge’s ideological orientation—namely, criminal law, discrimination, and individual-liberties cases.