For real diversity on the Court, no more northeastern judges

None of the justices have held elective office. All but one attended law school at Harvard or Yale. And the only three justices in American history who never worked in private practice are on the current court…

“Diversity of inputs makes for stronger outputs,” said Lee Epstein, a law professor at Northwestern University and an authority on the court. “Diversity has become a term for race and gender, but it also applies to career experience and background.”

Until recently, Supreme Court justices were often former legislators, governors, cabinet members, law professors and practicing lawyers. Justice Souter, who surprised his conservative patrons with his generally liberal votes, bears some of the blame for the emergence of what scholars call the norm of prior judicial experience.