Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Lucy Koh was confirmed Monday to a federal judgeship in San Jose, making her the first Asian American to ever gain a spot on the Bay Area federal bench.
Santa Clara County judge becomes first Asian-American federal judge in Bay Area history.
Koh will fill the seat of veteran San Jose U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte, who has taken semi-retired status. In addition to giving northern California its first Asian federal judge, Koh also becomes the only current Korean American federal judge in the nation and just the second in history.
With no outward Republican dissent, the Senate confirmed Koh on a 90 to 0 vote, securing her a place in local legal history without any partisan conflict. In addition to giving northern California its first Asian federal judge, Koh also becomes the only current Korean-American federal judge in the nation and just the second in history.
President Barack Obama nominated the 42-year-old Koh on the recommendation of California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who shares federal judge picks in the state with fellow Democrat Dianne Feinstein. Boxer introduced Koh when she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, recounting her family's story of fleeing communist North Korea before eventually emigrating to the United States.
Koh, a former federal prosecutor, law firm partner and Harvard Law School graduate, has had strong backing for the federal judge position, both from Asian-American organizations long frustrated by the lack of representation in the region's federal courts and also from others who've pushed her career, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who named her to the state bench in 2008.
Consider this: since President Obama took office, we have almost doubled the number of active federal judges of AAPI heritage from a mere eight in January 2009. And several nominations for AAPI judges are still pending. That's pretty incredible. Keep 'em coming.