CA Judicial Demographic Data

The 2021 JO Demographic Data is now available. See Demographic Data on Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Veteran and Disability Status of California State Justices and Judges.

Government Code section 12011.5(n) requires the Judicial Council of California to collect and release aggregate demographic data relative to the gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and veteran and disability status of California state court justices and judges, by specific jurisdiction each calendar year. The Governor and the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluations (JNE Commission) of the State Bar of California are required to collect and release similar information for judicial applicants.

In accordance with the requirements of Government Code section 12011.5(n), the Judicial Council has collected data pertaining to the demographic categories described above and prepared separate charts showing:

1. the overall gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity of responding justices and judges in the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, and trial courts;
2. the gender of these justices and judges by jurisdiction—for the Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal by district, and trial courts by county;
3. the race/ethnicity of responding justices and judges by jurisdiction;
4. the specific race/ethnicity reported by those justices and judges who indicated that they consider themselves to be of more than one race/ethnicity;
5. the sexual orientation and gender identity of responding justices and judges by jurisdiction;
6. the veteran and disability status of responding justices and judges by jurisdiction; and
7. comparisons of the current overall data pertaining to gender and race/ethnicity to findings from previous years, beginning in 2007.

Increasing the diversity of California's judicial officers to reflect the rich diversity of California's populace continues to be an important goal of the Judicial Council of California.

99 Court of Appeal Justices provided data: 39 female, 60 male; 5 Asian, 10 Black, 6 Hispanic, 4 "more than one race," 2 "some other race only" and 72 "white only." 2 lesbian, 1 gay, 77 heterosexual. The charts provide further breakdown by district.

See Survey Results: California Bench Growing More Diverse

[Update: 3/2 Today's DJ has State Judiciary Diversity Increased in Past 14 Years <noting that there are now 6 open Court of Appeal seats>; The Recorder has California's Judicial Diversity Numbers Stay Flat in Newsom's 2nd Year; Bloomberg Law has California Benches Increasingly Filled with Women, Judges of Color]