Supreme Court and ethnic representation
The United States Supreme Court has historically been composed predominantly of White men of European descent, leading to criticism regarding its lack of ethnic diversity. By the 2020s, only four justices of color had served on the Court. The journey toward ethnic representation began with Louis Dembitz Brandeis, the first Jewish justice appointed in 1916, who faced significant opposition due to prevalent anti-Semitism. The first African American justice was Thurgood Marshall, appointed in 1967, who was instrumental in the civil rights movement and became a symbol of progress during that era.
In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the first justice of Latin heritage, marking another milestone in the Court's diversity. Her nomination sparked debate over the impact of her ethnicity and background on judicial decisions. The appointment of Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2022 as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court further highlighted ongoing discussions about race and representation within the judiciary. Both Sotomayor and Jackson faced challenges during their confirmations, often tied to their identities, underscoring the complexities of ethnic representation in the Supreme Court. This evolving landscape reflects broader societal shifts toward inclusivity, yet the journey for comprehensive representation continues.
Supreme Court and ethnic representation
The United States Supreme Court has historically been dominated by White men of European descent. By the 2020s, only four people of color had ever served as Supreme Court justices. This lack of ethnic representation has been widely criticized for not reflecting the diversity of the United States.
A broadening of the ethnic base of the United States Supreme Court began with the appointment of Louis Dembitz Brandeis to the Court in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson. Brandeis, a Boston public interest attorney whose defense of the labor movement and reform legislation made him prominent, was the first Jewish person appointed to the Supreme Court. He had revolutionized legal practice by using economic and sociological facts in his brief in Muller v. Oregon (1908), a famous Supreme Court case. Anti-Semitism was prevalent in the United States at that time, however, and considerable opposition arose to Brandeis’s confirmation. Some members of the bar opposed Brandeis on the pretext that he had engaged in improper practices as a private attorney. President Wilson stood by Brandeis, and after stormy hearings at which the charges against Brandeis were discredited, the Senate approved his appointment. Brandeis began service on June 5, 1916, and served the Court with distinction until old age forced him to retire in 1939.
Another Jewish American, Benjamin Cardozo, was appointed to the Court by President Herbert Hoover in 1932. Cardozo died in 1939 and was replaced by Felix Frankfurter, who was also Jewish. In this way began the tradition of there being a “Jewish seat” on the Court. Frankfurter, who retired in 1962, was replaced by Arthur Goldberg, also Jewish, who served only until 1965. Goldberg was in turn replaced by Abe Fortas, the fifth Jewish justice in Supreme Court history, who served until 1969. There was then a gap of over two decades before two more Jewish justices were appointed in the 1990s: Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993 and Stephen Breyer in 1994. They were joined in 2010 by another Jewish American, Elena Kagan. Bader Ginsburg died in office in 2020.
The first African American to sit on the Supreme Court was Thurgood Marshall. From 1930 to 1933, Marshall attended Howard University’s law school, then the only Black law school in the country. Howard attracted a great many young Black men who wished to participate in the civil rights struggle. After graduation, Marshall affiliated himself with the efforts of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Educational Fund and became an extremely successful civil rights lawyer. His work as an advocate reached its peak with his successful argument in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the case that struck down racial segregation in schools and eventually in all public institutions. Marshall was appointed to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and, after a brief stint as solicitor-general of the United States, was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. He was the ninety-sixth person to be appointed to the Court but the first person of color. Amid the progress of the civil rights movement at the time, Marshall’s nomination met with no significant opposition in the Senate.
Marshall served on the Court until 1991, and after his retirement, President George H. W. Bush nominated another African American, Clarence Thomas, to replace him. The nomination became fiercely controversial when Thomas was charged with sexual harassment by Anita Hill, an African American law professor who had been one of Thomas’s colleagues. After sensational public hearings, Thomas’s nomination was confirmed in a close vote, and he took his seat on the court in 1992. The change from the liberal Marshall to the conservative Thomas marked a significant shift in the court's ideological spectrum.
President George H. W. Bush's administration also oversaw the first serious consideration of a Hispanic or Latino nominee for the Supreme Court, although no such appointment was ultimately made. It was not until President Barack Obama's 2009 nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, a second-generation Puerto Rican American, that the court gained its first justice of Latin heritage. Her confirmation faced significant opposition from conservatives who felt her ethnicity, as well as other factors such as her gender and track record, could potentially bias her decisions. Her supporters countered that her historic appointment helped bring important diversity to a Supreme Court that hardly reflected the makeup of the American population. Sotomayor's appointment also brought up speculation about former justice Cardozo's heritage, as he is thought to have had Portuguese ancestry, but most observers still considered Sotomayor to be the first justice from a Latin American background.
President Joe Biden also ushered in a new age in the Supreme Court in 2022 with the nomination of the first Black woman to the court, Ketanji Brown Jackson. Like Sotomayor, Jackson faced significant opposition from conservatives who questioned Jackson on issues like critical race theory and antiracist board books in preschool. Many observers and media outlets noted the racial overtones used in the questioning of Jackson during her confirmation hearing. Despite opposition from Republicans, Brown was confirmed by a 53-47 vote, with three Republicans voting with all the Democrats to confirm her in a historic vote.
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