NASHVILLE (AP) — A new report faults Tennessee's court system for not adequately representing the diversity of the state's population.
The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy ranks Tennessee 45th out of 51 state court jurisdictions for gender and racial diversity. The report says that the state's judiciaries are 60 percent less diverse on average than the state population.
According to the report, white males make up 36 percent of the state population but account for 74 percent of judges.
While women make up 51 percent of the population, only 20 percent of judges in Tennessee are female. And the report says that minorities make up 26 percent of Tennessee's population, but just 9 percent of judges are people of color.