This Just in: Diversifying the Court

In Diversifying the Courts, Nancy Scherer addresses why presidents choose or don’t choose to diversify the federal courts by race, ethnicity, and gender. She explores how and why the issue became a bitter partisan fight in the first place, tracking the controversial history and politics of court diversification while providing insight into the impact of gender, race, and ethnicity on the courts.

The book looks at polls, political experiments, surveys, and one-on-one interviews to show the complicated relationship between diversity and court legitimacy. The results show that diverse representation can positively impact perceptions of the court among women and racial minorities while having a negative impact on perceptions among white people and men.

Nancy Scherer is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College. She is also the author of Scoring Points: Politicians, Political Activists, and the Lower Federal Court Appointment Process, which can be found in our collection.