pres. obama nominates judge denny chin, other apias to federal judgeships

Remember how during the Democratic presidential primaries, 80-20 called for then-Sen. Obama's defeat because he refused to fill out their questionnaire? Many folks then, including me, were baffled, since the questions seemed like softballs.

Well, there are recent signs of hope that while Candidate Obama didn't make the pledges at that time we hoped for, he's going to actually carry them out anyway. Pledges #4 asked then-Sen. Obama to nominate more APIAs to become Article III life-tenured judges (at the time APIAs comprised only 0.6% of all federal judges, despite comprising 4.5% of the population and 5.3% of all attorneys at top 100 law firms), and Pledge #4 asked for him to nominate an APIA to a Circuit Court of Appeal during his first term (there are no APIAs sitting on federal Courts of Appeal).

As the saying goes, talk is cheap, and Pres. Obama is walking the walk. Yesterday, Pres. Obama nominated federal district court Judge Denny Chin (SDNY) to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. If confirmed, he would be the sole active-status APIA Circuit Court judge (Judge A. Wallace Tashima of the Ninth Circuit is a Senior Judge, which means he does not have a full caseload--h/t angry).

But wait, there's more! The President has also nominated three APIAs to federal district courts in California: Jacqueline H. Nguyen to the Central District of California, Edward Milton Chen to the Northern District of California, and Dolly M. Gee to the Central District of California. From the Alliance for Justice blog:

If confirmed, Edward Milton Chen would be the first Asian Pacific American district court judge in the history of the NDCA, (this is especially significant given that approximately 35% of the population in San Francisco is Asian Pacific American). Dolly M. Gee would be the first Chinese American female district court judge in the history of the United States, and Jacqueline H. Nguyen would be the first Vietnamese American district court judge in he history of the United States and the first Asian Pacific American female district court judge in California history.

In American history, there have been only four Asian American federal circuit court judges and 14 Asian American federal district court judges. Asian Americans are still significantly underrepresented on the federal bench.

AFJ has an interesting fact sheet as well.