Moving on up: The political incorporation of Hispanic women into the federal judiciary of Texas

Abstract

The President of the United States, with the approval of the US Senate, appoints Supreme Court justices, as well as court of appeals and district judges. Judicial nominations are often a centerpiece of a President's legacy. Always with a complex calculi of presidential goals, nominee characteristics, institutional constraints and opportunity, Presidents have sought to balance their own policy preferences with the need to diversify the bench. This article examines the political ascension of Hispanic female judges to the Texas federal judiciary. I illuminate dynamics that structure hierarchies on the basis of race and gender. I advance an account of race-gendering as a political process that silences, stereotypes, enforces invisibility, excludes and challenges Hispanic women's ascension into the judiciary. Race-gendering constitutes a form of interested bias operating in the judiciary, which has important implications for the understanding of the internal operations of political institutions and the representation of a historically underrepresentated group, and their incorporation into the federal judiciary.