Is Alabama’s judiciary too white? - CSMonitor.com
▻http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2016/0908/Is-Alabama-s-judiciary-too-white
For a state where about a quarter of the population is African-American, Alabama has 19 elected appellate judges, and they all look remarkably white.
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The lawsuit points out that no African-American has ever won an election any of the state’s three appellate courts in the past 21 years. Only three black judges have ever served on the highest bench, the Alabama Supreme Court. All three of those were appointed, not elected, during their first term, and only two were able to win reelection afterwards. Since 1994, every African-American running for any of the three courts has been defeated by a white candidate, and all 19 currently serving appellate judges are white.
The racial homogeneity among judges in a state where 27 percent of the population is black can be explained by a voting system that the lawsuit claims shuts out black Alabamians from serving on the bench, according to the Anniston Star.