The Changing Face of the Federal Judiciary: Is it Permanent or Temporary?

On July 28, the ABA released its fourth annual Profile of the Legal Profession report and hosted a special live online program highlighting the newest chapter of the report "The Changing Face of the Federal Judiciary: is it Permanent or Temporary?"

President Joe Biden has appointed an eclectic group of 68 federal judges to date: 52 are women, 44 are lawyers of color and only three are white men. He also named the first Black female justice to the U.S. Supreme Court.

How do Biden’s appointments change the federal judiciary – a group of more than 1,400 sitting Article III federal judges? How different are they from what came before? Is the change permanent or temporary? Five experts discussed the latest developments.

Speakers:

• Kimberly Atkins Stohr (moderator) – Boston Globe columnist and NBC contributor
• Tomiko Brown-Nagin – Dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, author of “Civil Rights Queen,” a biography of Judge Constance Baker Motley
• Russell Wheeler – Visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, authority on presidential judicial appointments
  
• Benes Aldana – President of the National Judicial College, former chief trial Judge of the U.S. Coast Guard
  
• Rob Saunooke – Co-chair of ABA Judicial Clerkship Program, former president of the National Native American Bar Association