The latest news story from NC Policy Watch Courts and Law Reporter Sharon McCloskey — “All white and overwhelmingly male: Latest departure leaves NC federal courts among lest diverse in the nation” — contains a lot of information that will leave caring and thinking people frustrated and even ticked off, but this passage stands out:
James Beaty, the lone African-American judge on the state’s federal district court, stepped down from his position on the state’s Middle District – which covers the areas from Durham to Winston-Salem – moving to senior status at the end of June.
The result?
North Carolina has one of the whitest and least diverse groups of federal district court judges in the country.
That’s a perception problem for the courts at the very least, particularly given that the ugliness of racial politics has resurfaced in North Carolina.
As Andrew Cohen points out in his article in The Atlantic last November, asking why there aren’t more black judges in the South:
“Indeed, at a time when minorities are being disenfranchised by Republican officials in Florida and Alabama and other Southern states, the continuing lack of black representation on our federal benches sends another strong message of a tolerance for unequal justice.”
And if that doesn’t get you fired up, check out this graphic: Read More
“Women’s groups associated with the Forward Together Moral Movement will hold a news conference this morning at 9:00 a.m. in front of the U.S. Federal Court House at 310 New Bern Avenue in Raleigh. Groups, including NC Women in the NAACP, Planned Parenthood of Central NC, North Carolina Women United, NC NOW, NC AdvaNCe and others, will call on Senator Richard Burr to do the right thing and allow Ms. Jennifer May-Parker’s nomination to move forward.
