Judge Demographics

By Brandon Park

The average age of a US judge has been on the incline, starting 1789-2020. As for the former, the average age of a judge was ~50 yrs old, in 2020: pushing 70 years. Obviously, we’re not to conflate older age with mental degradation, but it remains a valid concern. Older judges, as do most people, are not as spry and youthful as they used to be. What’d seem to follow: a lack of faculties and a, though speculative, return to racially motivated verdicts. This is all, provided some math, the birth of an average-aged judged in ~1955-1960, racism much? This is all, again, given the appropriate demographics, most judges are white males, some 74% (in 2024). In all fairness, judge demographics have become diversified, especially in the last few decades, the 74% a 91% in 1980, still a pretty big disparity. The supreme court, the paradigm to fair and unbiased justice, have had all but 8 of its judges be white. To clarify, there are many white judges that dole out justice fairly and well. Judges are not racist solely by virtue of their age or race, but some are predisposed to. This is not to attack anyone judge but is more geared towards US judge demographics as a whole.

The Supreme Court, of which all but 8 of its judges have been white (as we’ve already established), also happens to be a subsidiary to the US government, specifically, the judicial branch. The station of President- now occupied by an 80* (nearly) year old white male who, more often than not, spouts borderline boulangist lies. Trump’s 2015 campaign promises show as much: to build a wall and make Mexico, the country bordering America’s south, pay. It’s no surprise that the president is openly racist, though he may not let on as much.A November 2016 Post-ABC poll found that 50% of Americans thought Trump was biased against black people; the figure was 75% among black Americans. According to an October 2017 Politico/Morning Consult poll, 45% of voters thought Trump was a racist while 40% thought he was not.

The president maintains the power to appoint Supreme Court Justices, though they must be first ratified by the Senate. This is not to say the Supreme Court Justices intentionally side with Trump and his policies to gain favor, it just seems problematic that an openly biased president has such influence over The Supreme Court, unbiased and fair.

It would also be doing the Justices a disservice to out them as biased, many of whom have shown not to be. In fact, the Court recently barred the Trump Administration from deporting, in deference to 1798’s Alien Enemies Act,  undocumented Venezuelan immigrants, early April 19th of this year.

Franz Kafka, in one Penal Colony, argues as much, albeit in some caricatured/ghastly kind of way. The book goes as follows- an unnamed traveler visits the, titular, Penal Colony, in the Officer (one of three other characters), speaks of their execution machine - to be conflated, rightfully so, with our going capital punishments. The execution machine, dubbed the apparatus, etches the condemned’s sentence onto their backs. All this is to say, probably a bit on the fringe, that humans are brutal/ill-natured creatures that enjoy causing pain (i.e a whole bunch of sadists). Kafka’s auxiliary, but arguably as important, point goes this way- we humans claim to have moved on from our visceral savagery (check out the officer’s posturing/the use of militant titles), but actively seek pretext to satiate our beastly vices- ring a bell? Our entire justice system is predicated on fair and impartial justice, but some of our judges have taken it upon themselves to personally dole out justice- some group of, for lack of better term, daredevil wannabes.

‘Cruel and Unusual punishment- a phrase in common law describing punishment that is considered unacceptable due to the suffering, pain, or humiliation it inflicts on the person subjected to the sanction’- look no further than Alabama’s judge Les Hayes, having sentenced a single mother to 496 days behind bars for failing to pay traffic tickets (talk about flagrant abuses). I think 496 days makes for plenty introspection, this is to say, for the judge (haha). Taken, in verbatim, from Les Hayes: ‘with my years of experience, I can tell when someone is being truthful with me’ (i.e Guilt is not to be doubted, taken, also in verbatim, from Kafka’s Penal Colony). Judge Marvin Wiggins, 2016, in some fit of pseudo-Dexter-ism (coined by me, haha) gave the condemned the option of drawing blood in lieu of serving jail time, reads like Penal Colony to me.

To have blatantly racist, senile, and sadistic judges on our benches, by virtue of being racist, senile, and sadistic, is a miscarridge of justice and an affront to the sorts of mantras these judges (probably) have pinned on their walls: “Equal justice under law.”