Since the Supreme Court first convened in 1790, 114 justices have served on the bench. Of those, 108 have been white men.
That’s 95 percent if you’re doing the math.
Put another way, in the 228-year history of the Supreme Court, only 5 percent of justices have been women or minorities.
That’s pretty pathetic in a nation where women make up over half the population, and the diversity of our people continues to expand.
That’s 200 plus years of a lot of white guys.
Here are the six (count them, six) women and minorities who have ever served on our nations highest court:
That’s it.
Only two African-American justices, Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, have served on the court so far.
The first appointment — when Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Marshall — wasn’t until 1967. When Johnson announced the nomination, he said he thought it was the right thing to do and the right time to do it.
Thomas’s appointment happened decades later, in 1991 under George H. W. Bush.
The four women who have ever served on the Supreme Court.
Until 1981, every Supreme Court justice was male. But Ronald Reagan promised he’d put a woman on the court, and during his first year in office he kept that promise by appointing Sandra Day O’Connor.
Before that, presidents had appointed women to lower courts, but no one gave serious thought to putting one on the Supreme Court. President Harry Truman thought about nominating a woman, but justices at the time said they “would inhibit their conference deliberations.”
Bill Clinton made the second female appointment by nominating Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993.
And Barack Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, followed by Elena Kagan a year later.
Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan all sit on the current court.
The three minorities who have ever served on the Supreme Court.
Sotomayor is also the first and only Hispanic justice in history.
No justices so far have identified as Asian, Native American or Pacific Islander.
Some will argue (mainly white men) that the law is colorblind, and this is the way the founders of America intended our courts to look.
The same founders who – despite forming a Republic – allowed slavery to be legal, had politicians (not voters) pick U.S. Senators, and refused women and minorities the right to vote.
We can all agree those were big mistakes, and the law didn’t exactly seem colorblind.
The fact is diversity of background and opinion is important in any venue, especially on the highest court in the land.
America has a problem on the Supreme Court. And it shows no sign of getting any better anytime soon.
