Exposing the gavel gap

In 1995, Anne McKeig watched as Robert Blaeser became the first Native American sworn in to Minnesota’s state judiciary. As a fellow member of White Earth Reservation, it was the first time she considered she could become a judge someday, too.

Twenty-one years later, McKeig became the first Native American woman to serve on any state’s supreme court. Today, she’s one of seven justices ruling on Minnesota’s most pressing legal matters, and has become a strong advocate for diversity on the bench.

“I was raised in a trailer house until the trailer house burned to the ground, and had a very different life than some of my colleagues,” said McKeig. “I think that helps shape one’s judicial philosophy, your view of the law and your application of the law. When you have diverse views, it makes the outcome for all people better. If you don’t have that, you lose a richness in the law and you lose an even-handed application of the law.”

McKeig joins a chorus of legal professionals, academics and activists shedding light on what they call a flaw in America’s judicial system: Judges rarely reflect the communities they serve.

In 2017, approximately 80 percent of Article III federal judges (judges who serve for life) were white. No state government has reached gender parity among judges, and less than 10 states have judicial benches that closely represent the racial and ethnic makeup of their residents.

With midterm elections on the horizon and a sizable number of judicial seats currently vacant, this lack of diversity, coined “the gavel gap,” has the potential to get much
smaller—or much bigger.

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