Women on the bench in New Hampshire fill 38 percent of the seats, and only one person on the bench is a person of color, and she’s also the only woman of color.

This is according to a 2022 NH Women’s Foundation study, which said that 43 percent of circuit court judges are women, 32 percent of all Superior Court judges, and one of five Supreme Court justices is a woman.

The foundation is making recommendations: calling on the governor to nominate more women and minorities to reflect the state’s population; that there be more women on the governor’s judicial selection commission; and that they publish gender/minority data, along with the NH Bar Association.

Gov. Chris Sununu, the study shows, has made 35 percent of his nominations women. Some 48 percent of the nominations by his predecessor, Maggie Hassan, were women.

The state has a nine-member judicial selection commission, established by the Shaheen administration when she was governor in 2000. The number of women on the nine-member commission currently is three: Donna Sytek, Marcia Moran and Lyn Schollett.

— PAULA TRACY/INDEPTHNH.ORG