Is the current judicial system representative of society?
The legal system handles thousands of cases on issues that mostly affect Americans; these include health, finances, and family issues. Federal and state have the discretion and power to give unbiased judgments, and usually, they are no oversight of their work. Judges are quite important when it comes to resolving legal disputes that affect the American citizen and are often the last, and only decision-maker. As such, the fate of many is left in the hands of either a state or federal judge. Currently, the judiciary is not reflective of American society. A representative judicial system has a fair representation of race, ethnicity, gender, and minorities.
According to a recent study, more than 50% of state trial and appellate judges are white men while women are unacceptably underrepresented (George & Yoon 2016). Less than a third of the state judges are female. The study further shows that people of color who make up over 40% of a state are represented by less than two judges in the judicial system. Minorities are at times absent from both the federal and state courts. Virginia, Idaho, and Dakota ranked worst when it came to fair gender representation while Hampshire, Maine, Alaska, and Dakota failed terribly in equal race representation. Further, the society at the moment has an enlightened group of youths, but the judges on the bench are quite old. The legal system is founded on the fact that judges have a clear understanding of the society at large, but currently, we do not have a judiciary that reflects that population. Hence, we should re-evaluate our legal system to be more accommodating of women, the youth and minorities
Wolf-Vanderbilt, Amy. (2016, June 28). Do state judges represent you? Check out the map. Futurity. Retrieved from https://www.futurity.org/state-courts-judges-1191102-2/
George, T. E., & Yoon, A. H. (2016). The gavel gap: Who sits in judgment on state courts. American Constitution Society. Retrieved from https://gavelgap.org/pdf/gavel-gap-report.pdf