Heidi Li's Potpourri

Another drum beat - What the next President can do to empower women

Recently, I wrote that it would be both refreshing and advisable to hear President-Elect Obama commit to bringing the number of women on the Supreme Court in line with the percentage of women in the general population, meaning five women on the High Court, asap.

In addition the President can affect the composition of the federal judiciary at all levels. Although eight years of George W. Bush appointments has stacked the lower federal courts with conservative appointments, mostly youngish men, the next President could pledge now to consider appointing qualified women before adding any further qualified men until the composition of the federal judiciary as whole reflects the proportion of women in the country. A rather cursory web search reveals that women comprise only about 28 per cent of the federal judiciary (District Courts, Courts of Appeal and Supreme Court); women comprise just over 50% of the U.S. population as a whole.

The drum beat

Right now, via every channel we each used to communicate our preferences and our desires from the public servants who sought our votes, we need to tell those who have been elected what we expect from them. We need to begin to beat our drums until they ring so loudly they cannot be ignored.

I live in Washington D.C. I have no representation in the Senate and my House member does not have voting rights. (To learn more, look here.) Talk about disenfranchisement.

With no representation in the U.S. Congress, I am especially reliant on the President of the United States to represent my interests. The President is the only federal level official who represents the people not only of all the United States but especially of the Washington, D.C.

So as our President-Elect starts making plans and pondering appointments, I have a request. As we were continually reminded up through yesterday, this President-Elect will probably have the chance to make multiple Supreme Court appointments. I expect him, and his successors if he does not have the opportunity to make sufficient appointments, to appoint women and only women until the make-up of the court approximates the make-up of the general population: that is until there are five women justices and four men.

With a robust Democratic presence in the Senate and a huge pool of talented women from which to draw, this would be one of the easiest ways for President-Elect Obama to demonstrate genuine recognition of gender imbalance in political life.

Oh, and Mr. Obama, you have the power to ask Congress to remedy that disenfranchisement problem we folks in the nation's capital suffer from. My voteless representative will be working to make sure legislation is introduced to solve the problem. I expect you to support this legislation unreservedly.