You Got Nominated: Edward Chen

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Some cool news to post up your way on Edward Chen who was nominated out this Friday by President Obama for the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, where apparently no Asian American has ever been a federal judge:


U.S. Magistrate Edward Chen, who as a lawyer helped persuade a judge in 1983 to overturn a Japanese American man's conviction for defying World War II internment, was nominated by President Obama on Friday to the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, where no Asian American has ever been a federal judge.

Chen's nomination - which requires Senate approval - was applauded by Asian American legal groups, long frustrated at the makeup of the judiciary in the Northern District, which covers the coastal area from Monterey County to the Oregon border. "Diversity is critical on the bench," said San Francisco attorney Malcolm Yeung, a board member of the Bay Area's Asian American Bar Association. He noted that crucial cases in Asian American legal history - including an 1886 Supreme Court ruling overturning an anti-Chinese ordinance in San Francisco, thousands of challenges to an 1882 law barring Chinese immigration, and suits over World War II internment - had begun in San Francisco federal courts.
Seriously - not one up until now?

Kinda sad people.

Here's to hoping the Senate approval goes fast...because we at least need one.