President Biden's Impact on the Eighth Federal Circuit Judiciary

 Ah, the lonely, Eighth.  Rising northward from the northern extremes of the grand Mississippi lowlands it doesn't stop until it gets the great river's head waters in Minnesota and includes the northern half of the Great Plains.  At one point reliably Blue, that role now falls solely to Minnesota.  With the rest of the states led by a range of all white and mostly male Republican Senators you might expect a lot of reticence to cooperate with Biden administration in choosing judges to fill vacant seats, and this is were you would be mostly mistaken.  The first Republican led state to approve a Biden nominee was Iowa, and since both South Dakota and Nebraska have come on board.  

The two largest states in circuit are a study of opposites: Missouri (pop 6,178,000) and Minnesota (pop 5,717,000).  The former represented in the Senate by two male Maga-Republicans including noted Insurrectionist supporter Joshua Hawley, while Minnesota's Senators are both Democratic women.  With just 461,000 difference in population, both states have 8 member House of Representative delegations; however, Minnesota can manage with just 7 Federal Judges while Missouri needs 16!  Is Missouri more than twice as lawless as Minnesota?  Extrapolating further to another state in the 8th Circuit, Arkansas.  With a comparative population of 3,046,000, it is home to 8 Federal Judges.  Over twice as many per capita as Minnesota.  Is Minnesota really that much safer?  Don't ask George Floyd's family, or is this just one of innumerable examples of the systemic racism present in the Federal Judiciary?  Because one thing that Missouri and Arkansas have that Minnesota doesn't is a whole more Black people.  Think about it, kittens.  Just think about it.

So what are the claims to demographic fame that the 8th circuit can make?  The least number of women by percentage.  The least number of non-white judges by percentage.  The Appellate Division with the greatest percentage of men (91%), of white Judges (91%) and of Republican appointed Judges (91%)

With so few open seats the raw number of women judges out of the 55 total seats in the circuit actually dropped from 13 to 12, in spite of Biden nominating 3 women to seats in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota.  

By attrition only the percentage of women rose by 0.08%... 

Biden introduced the first two Hispanic Judges to the Circuit