Litigation

Female Judge Stands Alone for 16 Years

By Peter Hardin

“You get tired of being the only one,” says Judge Diana Murphy of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. She is the only female judge to serve on the court, and in an era of increasing diversity, it is the only U.S. appeals court with only one woman jurist.

Nor is the Eighth Circuit alone in having few women on the bench, according to a National Law Journal article that profiles Judge Murphy and examines judicial diversity:

• Women comprise 28 percent of the 163 active judges on federal circuit courts.
• They make up 22 percent of all federal judgeships.
• Women hold 26 percent of all state-level posts.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale helped get Judge Murphy a seat on the federal district court during President Jimmy Carter’s administration. “We wanted to look at 100% of the talent, not the 50% we traditionally looked at,” he said. If Solicitor General Elena Kagan is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, it will have three sitting female justices for the first time.

Judge Murphy told the magazine she was not “on a crusade” to increase diversity on the Eighth Circuit bench, and that she continues to be “energized” by her work. She has sat on the Eighth Circuit since 1994.

She has cast some liberal leaning decisions, and she has a different sensibility in approaching decisions, according to a fellow appointee of President Bill Clinton’s on the Eight Circuit. “Having children, going through childbirth brings something. It’s something you can’t talk about in a Senate hearing,” said Judge Kermit Bye.

Judge Murphy and her unique status on the Eighth Circuit were the subject of an editorial last year in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, saying ?the most powerful court in the nation?s heartland” was “one retirement away from being an all-male court.?

You can read more in an earlier Gavel Grab post about that editorial, and you can learn more about the importance of diversity on the bench from Justice at Stake’s issues page on the topic.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 01, 2010 (boomark / email).