Academic

Obama Picks Progressive Law Prof/Judge, Denny Chin, For Second Circuit

By Dan Filler

The WSJ Law Blog is reporting that the Obama administration will select Denny Chin to fill a vacancy on the Second Circuit.  (There are currently four open slots on the Second Circuit.)  Chin is 55.  He moved to the U.S. from Hong Kong in 1956, at age 2.  He attended public schools in New York City, graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, and received his JD from Fordham Law, where he was the Managing Editor of the Fordham Law Review.  His note, Aliens' Right to Work: State and Federal Discrimination, was published at 45 Fordham Law Review 835.   He worked at Davis, Polk, the US Attorney's Office (SDNY), and Vladek, Waldman (a New York plaintiff side employment and labor shop.)  He has maintained a long-term relationship with the legal academy, teaching legal writing courses at Fordham Law since 1989.

Chin is one of those judges who has articulated serious concerns about the legality of sex offender notification laws.  In 1996, he angered law and order advocates by prohibiting New York's Megan's Law from being applied retroactively.  He was reversed.  In 2006, he angered law and order advocates by prohibiting New York's from expanding the scope of its Megan's Law - because he found the extension to be in conflict with a prior agreement.  He was reversed.  

Oh yeah.  And he was the judge in the Madoff case.

Want to know how he interviews clerks?  From an interview with the UVa Law magazine:

When asked what types of questions he asks clerkship candidates, Chin said he always asks candidates to tell him about themselves. Good candidates will often lead the question into a conversation. "I'm looking for people who are smart, I'm looking for people I can work with," said Chin...He also asks them a hypothetical, noting it is much more important to show balance and reasoning than arguing for a right or wrong answer.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on September 10, 2009 (boomark / email).