California judges don’t reflect the state’s diversity — how that could change

As Judge Juan Ulloa reflects on his life, his white mustache rises with his slight smile: The septuagenarian has come a long way from thinning and trimming cotton in the Imperial Valley for $1.25 an hour.

Not that becoming a Superior Court judge was easy. Ulloa wasn’t appointed by a governor, although he tried. Nor was he recommended by the local bar, though he tried that too — he figures his legal work representing employees in discrimination suits and inmates seeking better jail conditions deemed him “too radical” for an...