Supreme Court's absence of class diversity

	June 24, 2013
THIS WEEK
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have just released their annual financial disclosures. The disclosure forms don’t require the justices to be particularly specific. The best we can tell, counting residences, all nine justices hold a good bit over $1 million in personal net worth. All nine justices, in other words, sit comfortably within America’s richest 2 percent, a little statistical tidbit that doesn’t seem to interest our chattering class. This latest round of financial disclosures has garnered next to no commentary. But think about this for a moment. Our current Supreme Court has more gender and ethnic diversity than any high court in American history. We proudly celebrate this diversity as a welcome sign of social progress. Yet we give no attention at all to the Supreme Court’s absolute absence of class diversity. On the nation’s highest bench, as almost everywhere else in America, the rich rule. Democracy runs a poor second. More on the race this week in Too Much.