Scholar Presses for More Supreme Court Diversity

Concerned that the current Supreme Court has too many Ivy League easterners in its ranks, a noted judicial scholar and former Justice Department official is calling on Congress to reject new nominees who don't bring greater geographic and background diversity to the Court.

University of Virginia professor emeritus Daniel Meador (pictured below) yesterday sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, (D-Vt.) asserting that "In some important respects, the current membership is the least diverse in the Court’s history, a situation that is unhealthy for the governance of the country, both politically and jurisprudentially." All but one of the current justices (Californian Anthony Kennedy) is from the east, he noted, and all are from Ivy League law schools. None has experience as a legislator or in elective office of any kind, he added. "This is a striking lack of diversity in geographical origin, educational background, previous life experience, especially lacking in the broader world of governance," Meador wrote. The BLT was shown a copy of Meador's letter.

"In a democratic society of transcontinental dimensions with 300 million people and nearly 200 law schools, the current situation badly needs correcting," Meador wrote to Leahy. "An institution that makes decisions as important as the Supreme Court does, affecting the lives of all Americans, needs to be more reflective of the nation as a whole and to have among its decision makers persons of more varied backgrounds and of broader experiences in public life."

He urged Leahy to press for passage of a resolution by the Judiciary Committee urging presidents to select future nominees from outside the current mold. Meador's resolution would go even further, pledging that, "until the current imbalance is corrected, The Committee on the Judiciary will not look favorably on nominees whose backgrounds and experiences depart significantly from the criteria specified here, all to the end that a desirable balance and diversification be restored to the Supreme Court in the interest of having wise and informed judgments brought to bear on the Court’s decisions concerning the meaning of the Constitution and laws of the United States."

Meador is an Alabaman who clerked for the late Justice Hugo Black, whose previous experience was as a senator from that state. An assistant attorney general in the Jimmy Carter administration, Meador has spend much of his career studying and seeking improvements in the administration of justice.

Recent presidents have often spoken of seeking nominees with more political experience and diverse geographic backgrounds. Leahy himself has urged presidents to look "outside the judicial monastery," but for perceived political or strategic reasons, presidents revert to recent practice. Without judicial experience on her resume Elena Kagan, the latest nominee, was not from the "judicial monastery" -- though she certainly lived nearby -- and Republicans criticized her for that deficit.

We have calls into Meador and to Leahy seeking further comment.

Comments

[Jack Johnson]

I note that all of the justies are either Cagholic or Jewish even though the vast, vast majority of our citizens are PROTESTANTS. Haven't the Presidents and Congress heard of the "REFORMATION".
Add diversity of religion to the criteria.

[sweir]

As a partner in a large law firm, I have found that most of those hired from the Ivey League schools lack common sense, an ability to litigate any cases (as they can't relate to the jurors and witnesses -- that is, they can't relate to "America"), and a sense of entitlement -- they shouldn't have to work as hard because they are "special". I will take the top grads from the good state schools any day over the Ivey League grads -- they live in a world that most of American doesn't and doesn't want to inhabit.

[CincinnatusDC]

I made the same point shortly after Justice Kagan was nominated:

http://washingtoninsideout.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/the-%E2%80%9Cshuttle%E2%80%9D-court-the-kagan-nomination-geographical-diversity-and-the-tyranny-of-small-decisions/

[Jeff Spangler]

Diversity, schmiversity. The discipline of constitutional jurisprudence is not based on any of the asserted bases for selecting persons who reflect the broad spectrum of society at large. What happened to the blindfold on Justice? Inclusiveness in our democracy does not require equal representation but equal results.

[Barry]

And in 36 years since 1974, only two presidents didn't go to Yale or Harvard. Even when the Country was really fed up (2004), our choices for President were both old white guys who were members of Skull and Bones. I guess it is what the country wants. Aaaaagh! Good grief.

[ADRIAN]

First, while we are at it, add military service as a crucial element of diversity. The near-universal lack of military service in our federal government at all levels, beginning with President Obama, is simply shocking, when the nation is at war in two fronts.

Second, why stop at the Supreme Court of the United States? Our federal courts at all levels are similarly close-bred.

Third, the reform must reach judicial clerks as well, whose salaries we the taxpayers pay, which means Congress, not Judiciary, should reserve the power to appoint who gets to clerk.

I propose diversity of all kinds as well as egalitarianism to be the new standard.