Bay Area to Get 1st Latina Federal Judge
Fair Courts E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Bob Egelko
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Date: November 16, 2011
Last week’s Senate confirmation of Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers and Sharon Gleason mark historic firsts for the Northern District of California and the District of Alaska, respectively. Gonzalez Rogers is the first Latina to be appointed to California’s Northern District. Meanwhile, Gleason is the first woman appointed to the federal bench in Alaska’s history. Yet despite these milestone appointments, the federal judiciary has a long way to go before it reflects the general population. Speaking to the Hispanic Bar Association last week, retiring District of Columbia Court of Appeals Judge Vanessa Ruiz –the first and only Hispanic judge on the city's highest court –lamented the lack of diversity on local benches, saying that while it's fine to be first, "to still be the only is not fine."
See also: Libby Casey, Judge Sharon Gleason Confirmed by Senate, Alaska Public, November 15, 2011; Zoe Tillman, Too Few Hispanic Judges in D.C., Retiring Judge Says, Blog of Legal Times, November 18, 2011.