Blacks on the Bench
It is well-documented that President Jimmy Carter was the first president to make significant inroads in diversifying the racial composition of the federal courts. Twelve years later, President William Clinton would con tinue the work begun by Carter by appointing sixty-two more African Ameri can federal court judges. Both Democratic presidents justified these efforts as necessary to provide minorities with descriptive and substantive representation on the federal bench, thereby increasing the federal courts' legitimacy in the eyes of black citizens.1 The substantial increase in the number of blacks on the federal