Former US President Carter broke records diversifying judiciary

By Nate Raymond

Dec 30 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's four years in office were marked by a record number of women and people of color being named to serve on the federal bench, making him the first president to significantly diversify the judiciary.

The Democrat, who died on Sunday at the age of 100, never had the chance to appoint a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Yet he appointed 262 life-tenured judges to the lower courts, a record for a president's single term that reflected his commitment to diversify a judiciary long dominated by white men.

They included the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who Carter appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1980, putting her in line for an eventual appointment by Democratic former President Bill Clinton to the Supreme Court in 1993.

"After Carter, things never went back to the old ways," Ginsburg, who died in 2020, said at a 2015 event. "The first time I ever thought of being a judge was when Jimmy Carter announced to the world that he wanted to change the complexion of the U.S. judiciary, which he did."

Ginsburg was one of two of Carter's appellate court appointees who were later elevated to the high court. The other was former Justice Stephen Breyer, who Carter appointed to the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1980.

Before Carter took office, only eight women and 31 people of color had ever served as federal judges, according to the progressive legal group the American Constitution Society. Carter surpassed those numbers in just four years by appointing 40 women and 57 people of color, including eight women of color.

His one-term record for judicial appointments was facilitated by an expansion of the federal judiciary brought about by his signing of the Omnibus Judgeship Act of 1978, which added 152 judgeships.

While other presidents with two terms in office have surpassed Carter's total record of appointed judges, he continues to rank No. 1 for a single four-year term.

Democratic President Joe Biden ranks second after he secured his 235th confirmed judicial appointment on Dec. 21, one more than the 234 that Republican President-elect Donald Trump named in his first term.

"As president, Jimmy Carter recognized the devastating lack of representation in our federal courts and prioritized diversifying the judiciary," Maya Wiley, the head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said in a statement.

Carter during a 2012 event at the Carter Center honoring his legacy of judicial appointments said he did not feel what he did "required any sort of political courage because I think the nation was ready for it."

"We still have a long way to go," he was quoted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as saying.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York)

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