Brown continues to diversify state judiciary

SACRAMENTO ? During his two tenures as governor, Jerry Brown has diversified the state judiciary to a substantial degree. That has accelerated during his second stint in office, according to data released by his administration Tuesday.

The 45 judges Brown appointed in 2016 include a number of notable firsts, including: Judge Yvette Durant, the first woman appointed to Sierra County Superior Court; Judge Marco D. Nunez, the first openly gay judge in Imperial County; and Richard T. Fields, the first African-American man appointed to the 4th District Court of Appeal.

"I think as people see on themselves reflected on the bench, they have more confidence in outcomes," said San Diego County Superior Court Judge David M. Rubin, who has served since 2006 and is openly gay. "There are qualified people from all different walks of life."

The annual report from the administration is due every year by March 1. SB 56, a bill signed in 2006, requires the "Governor to annually disclose aggregate demographic data provided by judicial applicants relative to ethnicity and gender."

A 2011 law, SB 182, expanded these requirements to "gender identity and sexual orientation."

According to figures from the administration, 40 percent of his 356 appointees since he took office in 2011 are racial minorities; 38 percent are women.

The fact that these numbers are widely known is in part due to efforts more than a decade ago by state judges.

Alameda Court Superior Court Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte was one of the organizers of a judicial diversity summit held in 2006.

A member of the judicial section of the California Association of Black Lawyers and a past chair of the State Bar Council on Access and Fairness, Harbin-Forte and others began tracking how "white and male" the judiciary was at the time, and presented their numbers at the conference.

"Once we put up the slides, you could hear a pin drop in the room," Harbin-Forte said. "Everyone was just shocked."

Their numbers helped inspire SB 56.

Overall, Harbin-Forte gave Brown high marks on diversity. However, she also noted that the numbers of African American, Latino and Asian-Pacific judges appointed dropped between 2015 and 2016.

"He really has made great strides in diversity on the bench," said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dennis J. Landin, a former president of the California Latino Judges Association. "Not only with regard to people from the Latino community but other communities you really didn't see represented."

Landin said Joshua P. Groban, Brown's judicial appointments adviser, has made numerous appearances at events held by minority bar association groups.

Like many in California's legal community, Landin has been occasionally critical of the speed of Brown's appointments, though figures from the Judicial Council show he has made appointments at about the same pace as his predecessor, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But Landin praised both the overall quality of the appointees and their diversity in terms of legal background. Brown has appointed far more former deputy public defenders than previous governors, said Landin, himself a former chief assistant federal public defender.

Brown has focused on other neglected legal specialties as well, said J. Anthony Kline, presiding judge of the 1st District Court of Appeal in San Francisco.

"Very few judges are fighting to sit on the juvenile dependency court of dependency or hear mental health cases," said Kline, who was Brown's legal affairs secretary from 1975 to 1980, during his first two terms as governor. "He's finding people who want to sit on dependency court and are practiced in that area."

David D. Marsh, a deputy public defender in Los Angeles, is an outspoken critic of one area where he said Brown's appointments have fallen short.

Marsh, who is disabled with a non-fatal degenerative nerve condition, helped lead the fight to pass a 2013 bill that required veteran and disabled status be tracked along with other demographic data on judicial appointments.

According to the governor's figures, Brown has appointed nine veteran judges and two disabled judges, including one each in 2016. Evan Westrup, a spokesman for Brown, said the report relies on self-reported data, and that the latest figures reflect past appointees who have since identified themselves as veterans or disabled.

But Marsh said the overall numbers remain very low, and veteran applicants appeared to be less likely than others to be chosen.

"Veterans and those with disabilities remain the invisible, overlooked minorities in the judicial selection process, despite legislation to the contrary," Marsh said.

malcolm_maclachlan@dailyjournal.com