San Francisco Chronicle: Federal appellate bench has many ex-corporate lawyers but few who represented the vulnerable, report finds
This excerpt is from a piece that originally ran on August 3, 2022.
Among the nation’s 171 federal appeals court judges, only 11 — less than 6% — had any experience in representing workers, consumers or the poor before their appointments, according to a new report. By contrast, the report said, 68% of the appellate judges are former corporate lawyers, and 28% are former prosecutors.
In its study, the liberal advocacy group Alliance for Justice contends that federal court rulings in recent years “for the wealthy and powerful and against the interests of working people and communities” were influenced by the makeup of the judiciary.