Litigation

Senate Confirms First Korean-American District Judge

By Peter Hardin

The Senate’s confirmation of Judge Lucy Koh for the federal bench in California will make her the first Korean-American district judge in the country.

Two other women picked by President Obama for judgeships also were confirmed Monday, as the Obama continued “reshaping the lower ranks of the federal judiciary, [by] nominating an unprecedented number of minorities and women,” according to a Politico article.

Obama has nominated 70 appellate and district court judges, with 44 percent of them female and 43 percent minorities, the Alliance for Justice reported.

That compares to 22 percent of President George W. Bush’s 322 confirmed judges who were female, and fewer than 18 percent were minorities.

Obama “far exceeds any other president in diversifying the federal bench,? said Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron. ?Given the diversity of our population, I think it?s critically important that Americans who walk into our courtrooms find the same diversity among our judges.?

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Koh, 42, won confirmation on a 90-0 vote, the San Jose Mercury News reported. She is a former federal prosecutor and law firm partner and a graduate of Harvard Law School.

“This is a historic achievement for the Asian Pacific American community,” said Joseph J. Centeno, president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, in a statement. “The glaring absence of an Asian Pacific American Article III [judge] in the Northern District California for over 160 years makes Judge Koh’s confirmation very meaningful to our community.” NAPABA is a partner of Justice at Stake.

The Senate also confirmed nominations of Jane Magnus-Stinson to be a district judge in southern Indiana and Audrey Goldstein Fleissig as a district judge in eastern Missouri.

To learn more about Obama’s record on judicial nominations, check out Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on June 08, 2010 (boomark / email).