Thread by @EdWhelanEPPC

By any measure, Biden's record of nominating African American women to federal appellate seats is extraordinary. Seven of his 18 noms--39%--have been black women. Black women account for about 2.3% of lawyers. 1/

So Biden has nominated black women to appellate seats at **17 times** their numbers among lawyers. And that's w/o adjustments for age, experience, qualifications to determine candidate pool. 2/

By contrast, Biden has nominated only one Hispanic woman to an appellate seat, despite fact that Hispanics outnumber blacks in general population by 30-50% and are roughly equal among lawyers. 3/

During Obama's 8 years, he appointed only 2 black women as appellate judges. Biden has already appointed 4, with three more pending. Why the much higher numbers? Possible answers: larger pool of candidates, higher priority? But bigger reason is probably demotion of blue slip. 4/

Demotion of blue slip for appellate seats dramatically increases White House power vis-a-vis home-state senators, including *same-party* senators. White House has much more freedom to pursue own picks. 5/

One reason I doubt very much that Senate will ever demote blue slip for district-court noms is that no senator wants to have political enemy preside over his corruption trial. 6/