Clinton appoints more women and minorities to federal bench

Jet, Feb 26, 1996

During his three years in office, President Clinton has appointed more women and minorities to the federal bench than his two Republican predecessors combined appointed during the same time span, say Clinton administration officials.

To date, President Clinton has appointed 187 judges to the federal bench, according to statistics released by the White House Counsel's Office. Of that total, 55 percent were women and minorities. Specifically, Clinton has appointed 41 Blacks, 68 women, and 15 Hispanics to the bench.

At the same time in his administration, Clinton's predecessor President George Bush had appointed a total of 10 Blacks, 27 women, and 6 Hispanics to the federal bench. And former President Ronald Reagan, at this point in his administration, had only appointed two Blacks, 10 women, and five Hispanics to the federal bench.

Clinton's judicial record of diversity was also stronger than his fellow Democrat former President Jimmy Carter, the country's last Democratic president. According to the statistics released by the White House, Carter appointed 29 Blacks, 33 women, and 14 Hispanics to the federal bench during his first three years in office.

Currently, Clinton has 30 federal judge nominations before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and aides expect many of them to be confirmed before the November elections. "We are on the reverse side. There is a demand for these products."

Already on the market are a line of personal checks and a limited edition statuette. Other products being developed include a line of Olympic pins, compact discs of King's speeches, a motion picture on King's life by a Hollywood director and an annual television awards program similar to the Kennedy Center awards.

King copyrighted his speeches during his lifetime, and when he died in 1968, those rights passed to his heirs.

Profits from the product would help reduce the King Center's $300,000 deficit and ease its dependency philanthropy, Dexter King told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. The yearly budget of the King Center is about $5 million.

He said the heirs are not looking to saturate the market with King merchandise or to get rich from his father's legacy.

The Rev. C.T. Vivian, a veteran civil rights leader and adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr., said the family has the right to earn money while educating the public about King's teachings.

"If there is money to be made, some of it should go to his family," he said. "There are millions of people--Black and White--reaping the rewards of Martin's work. There is no reason why his family shouldn't live comfortably."