Can merit selection promote diversity on the bench?
Conventional wisdom says that the only way to promote diversity on the bench is to use elections to choose judges. But, as is often the case, conventional wisdom is wrong. The best way to achieve diversity is by using a well-designed merit selection system. Even absent provisions that specifically aim to produce diversity on the bench, merit selection is as effective at producing greater numbers of women and minorities who serve on the bench as elections are. With provisions that specifically advocate diversity (for example, a merit selection system that specifies that members of the judicial nominating commission should represent the demographic makeup of the population), merit selection outperforms elections in achieving diversity on the bench. In fact, research has demonstrated that minority judges are significantly more likely to have been appointed than elected.
