In the past several months, President Obama has been making a quiet push to change the face of the nation’s judicial system through a slow and steady stream of diverse nominees for federal courts. In Florida, he nominated the first openly gay black man to serve on federal district court. In New York, he nominated the first Asian American lesbian. And in DC, he nominated the first South Asian to sit on the US Court of Appeals.
Since the start of the year, the president has nominated 3 dozen judicial candidates in total — and he’s expected to name even more in the coming months. Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and law professor at the University of Maryland. She also writes about legal issues for TheRoot.com. She explains what hurdles these candidates may face and what potential these nominations represent.