Our un-representative Supreme Court
Fact 1: 30% of today’s US population are White Men. Put another way, 70% of US Americans are not White Men.
Fact 2: The US Supreme Court is responsible for interpreting the US Constitution - the supreme law of the land - and deciding cases that have sweeping impact on the everyday lives and liberties of all 330 million+ US citizens.
So any reasonable US citizen would expect a national body with such immense and universal power to reflect the backgrounds of the people they hold that power over, right? Especially within a modern democracy that prides itself on justice and equality, yes?
Not quite.
Today’s Supreme Court consists of 9 Justices.
In order of seniority within each ideological wing, it breaks down like this:
Liberal wing (3 Justices)
White Man (retiring; to be replaced by a Black Woman)
Hispanic Woman
White Woman
Conservative wing (6 Justices)
Black Man
White Man
White Man
White Man
White Man
White Woman
With President Biden’s pledge to appoint a Black Woman as the next Supreme Court Justice, the liberal wing will soon consist of 100% Women (3 of 3), all of whom are from marginalized communities (Women, Hispanics, Blacks).
By stark contrast, the conservative wing consists of 83% Men (5 of 6), 67% White Men (4 of 6), and just 33% from marginalized communities (2 of 6).
To put these figures into perspective:
83% of conservative Supreme Court Justices are Men, while less than half (49%) of the citizens they rule over are Men.
67% of conservative Supreme Court Justices are White Men, while just 30% of the citizens they rule over are White Men.
33% of conservative Supreme Court Justices are from marginalized communities (and not one Woman of Color), while an overwhelming majority of the citizens they rule over (a combined 70%) are Women and People of Color.
What’s wrong with this picture?
It’s yet another poignant example of the Republican Party’s total failure to evolve, and their unwillingness to be truly representative of a democracy they claim to hold so dear.
Independents like me are proud to stand with Democrats on most issues because they understand in more ways than one what a representative government “of the people” truly means.
Government “of the people” is certainly not a bunch of old White Men hoarding almost all of the power. What we have today on the Supreme Court is an unrepresentative - and thus unjust - judicial body.
A government “of the people” is when the people in power proportionally reflect, in background and in values, the people they represent.
With the addition of the first Black Woman on the Supreme Court, President Biden and Democrats are about to take all of us - Republicans, Democrats, independents, and everyone in between - one big step closer to that ideal modern society.
Let’s keep marching forward.
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