Vol. 34, No. 2, 14. My Perspective.

• Author: by Hon. Catherine R. Rogers Circuit Court Judge First Judicial District

Wyoming Bar Journal

2011.

Vol. 34, No. 2, 14.

My Perspective

Wyoming Bar JournalIssue: April, 2011My Perspectiveby Hon. Catherine R. Rogers Circuit Court Judge First Judicial DistrictOn October 4, 2010, Elena Kagan made history when she heard her first case as the 112th justice of the United States Supreme Court. Justice Kagan is the fiDurth woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court, and for the first time in the Court s history, three women are now serving together. Closer to home, on May 5, 2010, the U.S. Senate confirmed Nancy D. Freudenthal as the newest District Court Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming. On July 1, 2010, Justice Marilyn Kite was appointed the first woman Chief Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court. Three of the last five state judicial appointments made by former Governor Dave Freudenthal were women.

That many of our new judges are women raises important questions about gender and judging. While the rise in women judges is symbolic, is there substantive significance to this trend? To what extent, if any, does gender make any difference in judging? Do women decide cases in a way that necessitates a call for gender balance in the judiciary?

In my view, if judges are appointed just because they are women, it is a mistake. To assign gender, in and of itself, a qualifying significance diminishes the contributions of women judges by emphasizing their gender rather than their qualifications to serve in judicial office or the substantive significance of their work.

Good judges possess "judicial temperament," integrity, moral courage, legal ability and expertise, intelligence and wisdom, compassion and fairness, and diligence and decisiveness. These qualities are not gender-specific identity traits but individual identity traits, which transcend gender.

On December 14, 2009, I took the Oath of Office in a courtroom packed with family and friends. In my remarks, I quoted an article written by James E. Duffy Jr., an associate justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court...