State supreme courts across the United States fail to adequately reflect the diversity of the communities they serve as well as the diversity of the legal profession. Unfortunately, this stark contrast is also present in the makeup of the Supreme Court of Nevada. Currently, all seven of the Justices on the Supreme Court of Nevada are white. Not one person of color presides on our state’s highest court.

Notably, since its inception in 1864, only one African American has served on the Supreme Court of Nevada. From 2004 to 2019, retired Justice Michael L. Douglas became the first and only African American to grace the bench of the Nevada Supreme Court. This means that in the court’s 158-year history, African Americans have been represented for only 15 of those years, which equates to 9.49 percent of the court’s entire existence. We believe Nevada’s Supreme Court should begin to reflect Nevada constituents — through the appointment of an African American Justice.

It is well-recognized that African Americans are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. More African Americans are arrested and imprisoned than any other racial minority in the United States. Incongruently, African Americans are significantly underrepresented in the legal profession. According to the American Bar Association, as of 2020, approximately 5 percent of all U.S. lawyers are African American or black, despite African Americans accounting for 13 percent of the U.S. population. This disparity is no different in Nevada, where African Americans are still fighting for adequate representation in our legal communities.