Lawmakers are about to appoint a half dozen new appeals court judges.
Many legislators want to add some diversity to the bench.
The Virginia Appeals Court currently has 11 members, and it's a bench that doesn't have a lot of diversity.
That's why Senator Scott Surovell, a Democrat from Fairfax County, says adding six new positions to the court will do more than expand the jurisdiction of the court to ensure people have a right to appeal. "The court does not really reflect the demographics of the state," Surovell notes. "Right now, the court -- out of the eight people who will be there after January 1, only one person is a minority and there's three women. And when we have 17 spots to fill that's not going to be acceptable. We need to make sure we have a diverse bench."
Republican Delegate Jason Miyares of Virginia Beach, who is also running for Attorney General, voted against adding the new appeals court judges, and he worries that the move will create a pro-defense and pro-defendant mentality.
But Miyares says he supports the idea of making the appeals court more diverse. "I'm proud to have championed diversity in my local judiciary. I pushed forward the first African-American judge in the history of the Virginia Beach Circuit Court, Judge Duffan, and have consistently said that we need a bench that reflects Virginia and reflects my city of Virginia Beach. So I think that is absolutely a factor we should consider when we look at who we elevate to the bench," Miyares says.
Lawmakers will be electing judges to those six new positions plus filling two vacancies on the court, so that's eight new appeals court judges.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
