When will America see its first openly gay Supreme Court justice, and what will it take to get us there?  The Advocate’s Chris Bull asked legal and political heavyweights those very questions for a piece in the magazine’s August issue.

Even though some of President Obama’s first judicial appointments were open lesbians, “(g)ays not only lack the electoral weight of other minority groups, but also are nearly nonexistent in the federal judiciary,” Bull writes.  If Obama were to nominate a gay justice, he’d likely have to look outside the federal courts–something that’s not commonly done, according to one expert:

“Federal courts are the ultimate establishment institutions,” says Robert Raben, a former aide to the House Judiciary Committee and founder of the Raben Group, a Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm. “The overwhelming majority of district and appellate court judges have some relationship with a U.S. senator. Local political leaders get nominees into the feeder. It’s anything but random — they need to be from the right law firm, social club, or fund-raising committee.”