i don't know if you've seen the recent study by benjamin barton about the profile of our current supreme court justices. we have is a latina, an african-american, but they've all given to harvard or yale. we don't have justices who engaged in preeft practice. thurgood marshall was the last justice that practiced in solo practice. justice stevens was the last justice who served in the military. just o'connor -- >> with any connection to state government. >> we're talking about a very narrow slice of individuals who are serving on the highest court. we have ongoing diversity problems, racial and gender throughout the federal appall at system and district system but also throughout the state system. that goes to the public's sense of confidence in the judiciary, the sense that it is not closed off, it is not a select group and it also goes to the quality of judicial decision making. we should want all different kinds of people to serve so those companies experiences, legal and otherwise, so we can get the best judicial decisions we can. >> we moved so quickly to so many different topics. je

i don't know if you've all seen the recent study by benjamin barton. the very narrow profile of supreme court justices that we have. we have a latina supreme court justice, three women, african-american, but they've all gone to harvard or yale. we don't have justices that have engaged in private practice. justice marshall was the last justice that represented a defendant let alone in a criminal case. so, you know, justice stevens was the last justice who served in the military. sandra o'connor. >> last elected official to state government. >> exactly. so we're talking about a very narrow slice of individuals serving on the highest court. and then we have ongoing diversity problems, racial and gender, throughout the federal aappellate system but also throughout the state system. >> that's true. >> that's critically important. that goes to the public's sense of confidence in the judiciary. the sense that it is not closed off. it is not a collect groselect g. we should want all different kinds of people to serve so that those experiences, legal and otherw

there was a recent study by benjamin barton about the profile of our current supreme court justices, of supreme court justices. we have a latina. we have three women. we have an african-american. they have all gone to harvard or yale. we do not have justices in private practice. thurgood marshall was the last judge that engaged in solo practice and represented a criminal defendant at trial, let alone in a capital case. we are talking about a narrow background. with the exception of elena kagan, they have been federal appellate judges. justice stevens was the last to serve in the military. sandra o'connor was the last elected -- >> to state government. >> we are talking about a narrow range of individuals on the highest court. we have ongoing racial and gender problems throughout the federal appellate system and district courts. that is critically important, because that goes to the public sense of confidence in the judiciary, the sense that it is not closed off, it is not a select group. it is the quality of judicial decision making. we should want all kinds of people to serve, so th