- To: Governor Stan Bishop
- From: Your Initials
- Date: April 21, 2022
- Subject: Women Working in the Criminal Justice System and Their Specific Challenges
This memo serves to inform the governor’s office of options regarding the recently identified issue of non-inclusiveness in the criminal justice system of the United States. After reviewing the pieces of evidence and conducting an analysis, we strongly suggest addressing the issue by providing the Judicial Conference with greater authority in terms of the selection and appointment of judges. This may be a significant foundation for the diversity of the US justice as a whole.
- Issue: Non-inclusiveness of the Criminal Justice System
Recently, there have been a considerable number of pieces of evidence that demonstrate a significant extent of non-inclusiveness in the Criminal Justice System of the United States. It seems reasonable to state that such a problem is a pressing factor that harms both reputation and competence of the US courts. There is an apparent necessity to come up with a policy that can address the mentioned issue appropriately. The rates of inclusiveness are to be increased so that the system can operate efficiently and with the greatest degree of implementation of modern practices in this vein.
Background
The Center for American Progress recently published a report that looked at the shortage of female justices, judges of color, as well as LGBTQ judges in the federal court. Judges from all backgrounds and life circumstances bring their distinct and vital insights to bear on the issues that appear before them, as that study demonstrated. For petitioners, inclusiveness on the federal bench has real-world implications, such as more equitable court judgments.
In particular, in the federal court system, there are likewise considerable gender gaps. Female judges, for instance, “make up just 27% of all lower federal court sitting judges and 34% of active judges” (The Democracy and Government Reform Team). Women of color, on the other hand, make up just 7% of all serving judges and 10% of all practicing judges in the federal court. Only roughly 3% of all judges and 5% of all eligible county and circuit justices are African American women. Hispanic females, in turn, are between 2% and 4% of the lower federal judiciary (The Democracy and Government Reform Team).
Analysis
Our team suggests that the mentioned issue and the presented numbers from the report are considerably caused by the process of selecting and appointing judges in the US court system. There is a need to establish and implement a practice that can lead to a greater degree of impartiality during this process. In order to figure out a possible solution, we appealed to the international the experiences in this regard.
It is customary practice in several nations, particularly those with a common law foundation, to select a judge from competent legal professionals. Judges of lesser and higher jurisdictions are typically appointed in different ways. Appointments are frequently made by the executive department, which has resulted in political meddling in various common law systems (Castillo-Ortiz 506). Judges in other nations are either elected or may be chosen but must therefore be elected. Other systems, more akin to inherited civil law traditions, employ a qualification-based method in which applicant judges must pass tests. Even recent law school graduates can be appointed as judges, albeit they will begin their careers in the lower courts and may progress up the “career ladder” like any other government official.
The Judicial Council, which decides on the selection of judges as a group, is a conventional civil law organization that has lately gained traction in common law reform. Depending on the country, judicial councils may have a different role. They deal with solely appointments in certain systems, while disciplinary actions and judge removal are dealt with in others. The topic of who should be nominated to such councils and how they should be selected has a variety of solutions (Guilfoyle and Marder 105). A balance between governmental authorities, including judges, and a role for civil society, maybe through the engagement of the legal community and law educators, appears to be the ideal. The main goal is to prevent any branch of government or political class from dominating, as well as to attain diversity and productivity.
The process’s transparency is just as vital as the membership of the judging panel. For vacant posts, the competition must be declared, and applicant profiles must be made public (Castillo-Ortiz 507). Some judicial boards or commissions allow the media to attend and, in some situations, broadcast candidate interviews. Transparency of the process is a critical component of judicial recruiting reform.
Taking into account the analysis given, our team suggests providing the equivalent of the UK Judicial Council – the US Judicial Conference – with a greater range of authorities in terms of appointing and selecting judges. The related panel in this institution should involve an equal number of male and female judges so that any extent of prejudice could be avoided. However, it is essential to remember that while striving for diversity and inclusion, the Conference is not to neglect candidates’ competencies, experiences, and significance in the framework of the legal dimension of the country. It is assumed that such an approach will contribute to the improvement of the diversity of the US criminal justice system, as well as a whole court organization. Any branch of the county’s justice is to realize inclusiveness, given that it is among fundamental principles of equality.
Works Cited
Castillo-Ortiz, Pablo. “The Politics of Implementation of the Judicial Council Model in Europe.” European Political Science Review, vol. 11, no. 4, 2019, pp. 503–520., doi:10.1017/S1755773919000298.
Guilfoyle, Eoin, and Ian D. Marder. “Using Data to Design and Monitor Sentencing Guidelines: The Case of Ireland.” Common Law World Review, vol. 50, no. 2–3, 2021, pp. 103–119.
The Democracy and Government Reform Team. “Examining the Demographic Compositions of U.S. Circuit and District Courts.” The Center of American Progress, 2020.