SACRAMENTO – Assemblymember Dave Jones (D-Sacramento), Chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, today expressed deep concerns about Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's initial efforts to begin addressing the state's dismal lack of diversity in its trial court judges.  Only 4 of the 26 judges appointed by the Governor on Friday were persons of color and only 8 were women.  “These latest appointments will do little to close the diversity gap in our courts”, said Chairman Jones. “The Governor is going to need to do a better job of appointing a more diverse group of judges in order to address concerns raised by the Legislature last year about the dismal lack of diversity on the bench.”

Jones noted that minorities make up a scant 17.5% of the total number of California Superior Court judicial seats, and less than  10% of California Court of Appeals seats,  according to the Administrative Office of the Courts publication, California Courts:  Locations, Justices and Judges (May 2006), while they make up 57% of the overall California population.  Of the judges sitting on the bench currently, only 4% are African American, 6.3% are Latino, and 4.5% are Asian and Pacific Islanders.

"Increasing the diversity of the bench is important to both increase public trust in the judicial system, and to ensure that a diverse perspective is provided in the judicial process," Jones stated.  “There are numerous well qualified minority and women judicial candidates to choose from.”   When the Legislature authorized 50 new judges last year, Jones and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez reiterated that it was critical that the Governor use these appointments to close the diversity gap on the bench.  Nunez and Jones have been leading successful efforts statewide to identify well qualified minority and women judicial candidates.

In order to increase judicial diversity and relieve the state's judicial back-log, Jones is carrying legislation this year, Assembly Bill 159, to authorize the creation of an additional 50 new judgeships on top of the 50 the Legislature authorized last year.  And Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed $27.8 million in his 2007-08 State Budget to fund the 50 new judgeships created by Jones's bill.  Jones noted, however, that the likelihood of the Legislature authorizing and funding more judgeships this year will diminish if qualified minority candidates continue to be passed over and the diversity gap persists.