Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination brings renewed attention to lack of Black judges on the federal bench

As the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court has ignited a discussion about the historic lack of diversity on the nation's highest court, her ascendance has also renewed focus on the absence of Black judges on the federal judiciary's lower courts. Of the 3,852 people who have been confirmed as federal judges, a CNN analysis of data from the Federal Judicial Center shows that only 240 of them -- 6% -- have been Black. Just 71 of them have been Black women. More than three-quarters of all the judges have been White men.

And while strides have been made in recent years to improve the demographic makeup of the federal bench, the judiciary still skews dramatically toward White, male judges, especially when compared to the rest of the country. Almost 80% of all Article III judges -- the federal judges who are nominated by a US president and confirmed by the US Senate -- are White, and 71% are men, with large gaps persisting in Latino, Black and women's representation in the federal courts, the data shows, despite Black Americans accounting for 12.4% of the US population. That lack of representation is an obstacle for aspiring judges of color in a career pipeline when it comes to openings on the Supreme Court -- while also having a negative impact on a judicial system in which judges are expected to make fair and impartial decisions on issues affecting an ever-diversifying country, experts told CNN. "One thing that we know erodes public confidence in the judiciary is when judges and other judicial actors (like juries) fails to reflect the diversity of the citizens who rely on our courts to mete out impartial justice," Stacy Hawkins, vice dean and professor at Rutgers Law School, told CNN. "Citizens simply lack trust in the system when the system does not appear to adequately reflect their interests."