More work ahead to diversify bench, but much progress made

A recent article ("Despite push for diverse bench, nonwhite judicial applicants still lagging," April 29), while rightly highlighting the need for a diverse judiciary, also unfairly ignores important strides that have been made to diversify the bench in California.

More specifically, Latino, African-American and Asian-Pacific Islander applications are all increasing: Latinos comprise 12.4 percent of judicial applicants to the Brown administration through 2014 compared to 9.2 percent under the prior administration; African-Americans now make up 7.8 percent of the applicants compared to 6.7 percent under the prior administration; and Asian-Pacific Islanders are 8.2 percent compared to 6.4 percent.

The diversity of appointments is also up significantly under Governor Brown relative to the prior administration: Latinos comprise 16 percent of the Brown administration's appointments through 2014 versus 10.8 percent under the prior administration; African-Americans comprise 11.4 percent versus 8.1 percent; and Asian-Pacific Islanders comprise 9.3 percent versus 7.5 percent.

Beyond the strides made with respect to applications and appointments in recent years, the article also misses the bigger picture with respect to overall diversity of the bench. Despite using figures from a recent Judicial Council press release headlined, "California Bench Continues to Grow More Diverse," the article endeavors to draw the opposite conclusion, stating: "California's 1,655 sitting judges remain 70 percent white as of the end of 2014 - nearly unchanged since 2007, when the state began tracking the demographic data." This conclusion ignores the significant progress made by both the Schwarzenegger and Brown administrations to diversify the bench in literally every applicable racial and ethnic category: American Indian or Alaska Native (0.5 percent in 2014 compared to 0.1 percent in 2006); Asian (6.0 percent in 2014 compared to 4.4 percent in 2006); Black or African-American (6.5 percent in 2014 compared to 4.4 percent in 2006); Hispanic or Latino (9.4 percent in 2014 compared to 6.3 percent in 2006); Pacific Islander (0.2 percent in 2014 compared to 0.1 percent in 2006); Some Other Race (1.1 percent in 2014 compared to 0.2 percent in 2006).

The Brown administration recognizes that much more work lies ahead to diversify the bench, but the progress that has been made to date cannot and should not be diminished.