News-Record.com

"With a growing diverse ethnic community, we need a racially diverse court," O'Hale, born in South Korea but raised in Greensboro, wrote on a News & Record questionnaire. "It is important that everyone receives a fair and timely hearing to ensure respect and trust for our court system. As an Asian American, I would help establish that mutual respect and trust among all of our citizens."

Diversity in the courts is a fair issue for voters to consider in judicial races this year. How much weight they should give it is another matter.

No less an authority than Sarah Parker, chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court, offers the opinion that, "We need courts that reflect the makeup of the people."

For years, Parker was the only woman on the seven-member high court. Earlier this year, Gov. Mike Easley appointed Patricia Timmons-Goodson, a former Court of Appeals judge, to fill a vacancy -- making her the only black justice and the first since Greensboro's Henry Frye was defeated for election as chief justice in 2000.

Naturally, Timmons-Goodson joins Parker in endorsing diversity on the bench. "It's something voters should take into account," she said in an interview last month.

She, O'Hale and Parker all are matched against white men in the election.

District Court Judge Tom Jarrell, whom O'Hale has challenged, should worry about the gender issue. In Guilford County, voters strongly favored female judicial candidates two years ago.

Success for women is still spotty elsewhere. Few sit on the Superior Court bench, but seven of 15 judges on the N.C. Court of Appeals are women. And, after next month's elections, as many as four Supreme Court justices could be women -- or as few as one. A woman is only assured of winning the race between Robin Hudson and Ann Marie Calabria.

Minorities, however, are far from equitably represented.

But that raises the question: Should the judiciary, as Parker said, reflect the makeup of the people? After all, the law is the law. It shouldn't be interpreted one way by a man, another way by a woman, with other interpretations offered by members of various racial or ethnic groups.

"It goes to the perception of fairness," Parker said in an interview Sept. 29.

That was a Friday. The following Monday, she called me back with further thoughts, saying she didn't want to leave the impression that the issue boiled down to a matter of perception only. It's important in a real sense, especially when justices are conferring over a case, to draw on a variety of viewpoints and life experiences, she said.

Timmons-Goodson advanced a similar argument.

"Seven heads are better than one," she said of Supreme Court deliberations. If those seven heads represent "a variety of different experiences," the outcome is likely to be better.

That's a hard case to make, in my view. While I agree a diverse judiciary contributes to the appearance of fairness, it isn't a necessary component of justice if judges do their jobs correctly.

That said, I have to concede a point to O'Hale: Members of some ethnic groups might feel more comfortable in court if they see an Asian American judge on the bench. Furthermore, her immigrant success story is inspirational and makes her a role model for newcomers.

But, in a conversation Monday she granted that it's not wise to cast a vote solely on the basis of race or gender without considering the candidate's qualifications.

Frankly, I don't know how being Asian American gives a judge an advantage in establishing respect and trust.

Besides, with only 12 judges, our District Court bench can't possibly match in every detail the diversity of Guilford County's population. It shouldn't have to for everyone to receive equal justice under the law.