I’ve been surprised how hard it’s been to find some at-a-glance figures on where judges practiced before they became judges. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for, and I’m going to quit trying for the moment. These ABA stats on diversity in state courts are curious though: while the percentage of non-white judges (10%) is about the same as the percentage of non-white lawyers (11%), the way those non-white judges are making it on the bench is overwhelmingly by popular election. Of the non-white judges, more than two-thirds—69%—were elected by the public. Frustratingly, the ABA doesn’t provide a quick comparison to how many white judges are elected. UPDATE: from what I’m finding, it looks like about 80% of all judges are elected, in the US. Thus, as I first suspected, before the presentation structure of the ABA statistics confused me, non-white judges are more likely to be selected than elected.