Blog of law articles

I did a post over at David's fine blog regarding this great John Pacenti article on the lack of women on the newly appointed Federal Judicial Nominating Commission.

But I want to amplify it a bit here, from the comfort of my own crappy soapbox.

I give Lisa Lehner a lot of credit. She really lets loose and has some great quotes:

“I was appalled,” said Lehner, director of the Miami-Dade chapter of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers. “It’s mind-boggling. It’s a total and complete mystery how anyone can constitute a commission, which is supposed to be selecting candidates for federal office, with such a gross disparity and inequality toward women.”

Here's another:

Lehner said there have been problems with diversity on the state judicial nominating commissions, pointing to Gov. Charlie Crist’s request in December for a more diverse list of candidates to fill a Florida Supreme Court vacancy. “This is a pandemic. The state JNCs are abysmal,” she said.

She's right.

This one's my favorite:

“How do the guys do it? What’s the secret handshake here? What are we missing?” she said.

I don't know -- let's ask Steve Zack:

Zack, like other JNC members contacted, said he had no comment on the number of women on the commission.

No comment?

This comes on the heels of a remarkable study finding that the more attractive a woman is, the less competent she is judged to be:

According to an article by Tom Jacobs on the website of Santa Barbara's Miller-McCune Center, recently completed research at the University of South Florida indicates that, at least among a select group of students there, those who found the hockey mom more attractive also judged her less competent, less intelligent and less capable.

This didn't seem to have much impact in Palin's 2006 primary upset victory and statewide election as the largest state's first female governor.

But the finding, being published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, does conform with previous research that found attractive women in high-status jobs were perceived as less competent.

Both outcomes would seem to strongly indicate there's more to the glass ceiling for females than the actual glass. No news to them.

Back to the JNC -- I would say that if the Panel is not reconstituted, they will have a hard time recommending an older white guy to replace Judge Hurley or Judge Gold when he takes senior status.

What do you all think?

UPDATE -- Billy Shields has more:

Cuban American Bar Association president Roland Sanchez-Medina has fired off an angry letter to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, complaining about the lack of Cuban-American Democrats on a newly named federal judicial selection commission as well as a lack of consultation.

The Democratic Party has “been the road less traveled” for generations of Cuban-Americans, which means some of the most dedicated members are Cuban-Americans willing “to swim against the tide,” Sanchez-Medina wrote the senator Wednesday in a letter obtained by the DBR. “I was hopeful that some day those of us who persevered … would finally enjoy our day in the sun, and after this past election, I finally believed that day had come; that we would have a clear and unambiguous voice in the political process. Unfortunately with the stroke of a pen, you have damaged even my indefatigable spirit.”

Sanchez-Medina complained not only about a lack of representation but said that Nelson made his selections for the Judicial Nominating Commission without any consultation with local Cuban Democrats.

Come on -- that shouldn't be too hard. Just get all five in the room and talk.