NASHVILLE (AP) — The state attorney general's office is appealing a ruling by a Nashville judge that the seven-man, two-woman makeup of a state commission is discriminatory and makes the commission invalid.

According to state law, the membership of the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission is supposed to approximate the state's population in terms of race and gender. Although Tennessee is 52 percent female, the commission is only 22 percent female.

The commission's job is to evaluate Tennessee's appellate judges and recommend them for either retention or replacement. On the advice of the attorney general's office, the commission held its regularly scheduled meeting on Friday despite the ruling by Davidson County Judge Hamilton Gayden.

Gayden had not issued an injunction barring the panel from meeting, although he said he hoped it would not meet.