The Eighth Circuit Has a Diversity Problem. Trump Could Further Entrench It.
His next circuit court nominee could make history — or continue a disturbing trend.
Forty-six years ago this month, President Jimmy Carter nominated Diana Murphy to the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. When she was confirmed in February 1980, she became the first woman to serve as a lifetime judge in the state.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg paid tribute to Judge Murphy following her death in 2018. “Serving as a judge in Minnesota state courts early in her legal career, Diana Murphy became a federal judge in 1980, as I did,” Justice Ginsburg wrote. “Both of us were beneficiaries of President Carter’s determination to change the complexion of the U.S. Judiciary by appointing women and members of minority groups in numbers, no longer as one-at-a-time curiosities.”
That was certainly true for the Eighth Circuit. President Carter in 1978 appointed that court’s first judge of color, Judge Theodore McMillian — and in 1994, Judge Murphy joined him as the first woman to serve on that federal appellate court, which covers Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
In its history, though, the Eighth Circuit has only had two judges of color, Judge McMillian and Judge Lavenski Smith (both Black men), and only two women serving as judges, Judge Murphy and Judge Jane Kelly (who are both white). The court is one of just two federal circuit courts — along with the Tenth Circuit — where a woman of color has never served. On both courts, only two judges of color, all men, have been appointed.
Today, Trump’s lone circuit court vacancy lies in the Eighth Circuit, where he has a Missouri seat to fill following Judge Duane Benton’s announcement that he will assume senior status. Judge Benton replaced Judge McMillian on the court, so the vacancy that Trump will fill is the same seat held by the court’s first judge of color.
Trump previously appointed four judges to the Eighth Circuit — Judges Ralph Erickson, Steven Grasz, David Stras, and Jonathan Kobes. All four are white men. To date, he has also appointed seven lifetime judges — who are also all white — to Missouri district courts, and he could choose to elevate one of them to fill this vacancy on the appellate bench. Those district court appointees include Sarah Pitlyk, who was widely opposed by civil rights organizations, who was rated Not Qualified by the ABA, and who “made a career trafficking in alarming and racist stereotypes about African American women and women of color.” They also include Stephen Clark who, in addition to his anti-LGBTQ+ equality and anti-abortion record, had “been a member of three discriminatory private clubs” that excluded people based on race, gender, and religion. Trump’s four appointees in 2025, including Josh Divine, also have deeply troubling records on issues related to civil and human rights.
The Eighth Circuit currently has 10 active judges appointed by Republican presidents, including those four appointed by Trump, and just one — Judge Kelly, who is the only woman currently serving on the court — appointed by a Democrat. In 2013, she became the second woman and first public defender (a job she had for 20 years) to serve on the court, and she remains the only public defender to ever serve on the Eighth Circuit. Three of those Republican-appointed jurists — Judges Stras, Colloton, and Gruender — were on Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist in November 2017, indicating that they likely passed his litmus test and would have overturned Roe v. Wade if appointed.
Given that this court is currently staffed by nine white men appointed by Republican presidents — in addition to Judges Lavenski and Kelly — and that its judges possess very little professional diversity (Judge Kelly’s public defender experience is the exception), it would be a welcome development for its next appointee to bring to the bench the kind of professional background and lived experiences that enhance the judiciary.
Judicial diversity — both demographic and professional — strengthens our democracy and has been shown to increase public trust in the courts, improve judicial decision-making, and provide for the opportunity for role models. It is critically important to have judges who respect and understand how the law impacts people’s lives and who can comprehend the broader consequences of their decisions. This has, unfortunately, not been a hallmark of Trump’s judicial selections, and there is no reason to think that this will change.
Already, Trump has appointed 60 circuit court judges across his two terms, and they are overwhelmingly individuals who possess records of hostility to civil and human rights. They are also 85 percent white (and 65 percent white men) — and zero of them are Black. Only two of his 60 circuit court appointees, Judges Neomi Rao and Barbara Lagoa, are women of color.
The chances of this president appointing the Eighth Circuit’s first woman of color to serve — and one who will bring to the bench the kind of professional diversity and commitment to equal justice that the court needs — are likely zero. But it’s what the court, and what communities in the Eighth Circuit, deserve.
Watch this space.