Two years ago at a panel discussion on diversity at the University of Georgia, DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez—whom the White House nominated July 30 to the federal bench—talked bluntly of his surprise when he heard judges from some of the state's rural circuits be dismissive of minorities and immigrants.

Lopez said that the first judges' meeting he attended was “a real eye-opening experience.” He said that as his fellow judges discussed their courtroom practices, their attitudes toward the minorities and immigrants who appeared before them ranged from indifference to open hostility. Some judges, Lopez told the gathering, indicated they would “affirmatively hurt” the defendants who appeared before them. Others, he said, boasted that they intentionally sought the harshest outcome possible in immigrant or minority cases.

What was missing, Lopez said, was any sympathy for the plights of the immigrants and minorities who passed through their courtrooms.