http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/130452993.html
Obama nominates Vietnamese-American to 9th Circuit
By Michael Doyle
McClatchy Newspapers
typical, my opinion--this is a waste of time. only those old days that
hmong people had nothing to do. they would come to sit together and
chanting (li hais kwvtxhiaj) siblwv...and they finalized into such a
proper chanting lawm xwb.
all these can be said with a few good words in just one or two hours.
Tos peb hmoob mus tsi txog deb li luag lwm haiv neeg, vim peb tsi saib
lub time no muaj benefit li....
Saib luag tej neeg Refugee...luag mus deb npaum li cas lawm thiab:
thaum twg thiaj li txog peb hmoob...
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans balked the last time President Barack
Obama nominated an Asian-American from California to a prominent bench
seat, which some conservatives considered a stepping stone to the
Supreme Court.
Now, with the nomination of Los Angeles-based U.S. District Judge
Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Obama
and GOP lawmakers will get another chance to either fight or reconcile
over a potentially historic appointment.
“I look forward to a speedy confirmation by the Senate,” Democratic
Sen. Dianne Feinstein said.
In the current political climate, this might be wishful thinking.
Obama’s prior choice for the 9th Circuit, then-law professor Goodwin
Liu, saw his nomination languish under a GOP wet blanket for some 15
months before he withdrew last May; 92 federal judiciary vacancies
remain, including 17 on appellate courts.
Appellate court nominees typically draw more scrutiny than trial-level
judges, because their opinions can become binding law for a multi-
state region. The 9th Circuit spans nine Western states: Idaho,
Washington, California, Alaska, Montana, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and
Oregon.
This means Nguyen can expect to receive far more than the half-a-dozen
or so perfunctory questions she received during her brief 2009
district court nomination hearing. No date has been set for the
hearing.
“Judge Nguyen has been a trailblazer,” Obama said in a statement
announcing her nomination late Thursday, adding that he is “confident
she will serve the American people with fairness and integrity.”
The American Bar Association on Friday advised the Senate Judiciary
Committee that its committee unanimously judged Nguyen to be
“qualified.” This falls short of “well qualified” but is above “not
qualified.”
As a district court nominee in 2009, Nguyen was judged “well
qualified” by the ABA. Appellate court nominees, more than trial-level
nominees, get judged heavily in areas such as legal scholarship and
writing ability.
On the other hand — as past judicial nominees such as Supreme Court
nominee Robert Bork have found to their regret — too much legal
scholarship can cause problems if the academic writings prove too
provocative.
Born in Vietnam in 1965, Nguyen would be the first Vietnamese-American
on a federal appellate court if she wins Senate confirmation. For
those looking two moves ahead on Capitol Hill, that potentially raises
the stakes, including the possibility that she’s being given a tryout
for the really big league.
Presidents periodically appoint appellate court nominees for whom they
have longer-term ambitions. Opposition party senators, in turn,
periodically try to head these nominations off at the pass. Ethnic
politics sometimes plays a role in this tussling.
“In addition to her qualifications, the White House and California’s
Democratic senators surely find it appealing to put the first
Vietnamese-American on a federal appellate court,” conservative court
watcher Ed Whelan said Friday. “I’d be surprised if the White House is
consciously grooming her for a Supreme Court nomination, but she may
end up as a top-tier candidate anyway.”
Whelan, who is president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in
Washington, acknowledged that Nguyen has “a remarkable life story.”
And, as up-from-poverty Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and
Sonia Sotomayor can attest, such remarkable life stories can help win
Senate votes.
Nguyen came to California with her family in 1975 from Dalat, South
Vietnam. They lived initially at Camp Pendleton before moving to Los
Angeles, where her parents owned doughnut shops. Nguyen slung
doughnuts as she went on to graduate from Occidental College and the
University of California Los Angeles School of Law.
“Judge Nguyen’s personal story is one that to me ... really shows how
fortunate we all are to live in the United States,” Feinstein told the
Senate Judiciary Committee at Nguyen’s first confirmation hearing, in
2009.
Judicial nominees typically don’t speak with the media during their
nomination process.
As it happens, Nguyen’s life narrative partly parallels that of
Sotomayor, starting with their very modest upbringings.
Nguyen served seven years as a federal prosecutor, giving her the law-
and-order credentials that can mollify some conservatives. Sotomayor,
the high court’s first Hispanic member, likewise prosecuted criminals
for five years.
Nguyen worked four years in private practice, giving her business
experience with a Los Angeles firm. Sotomayor worked five years in
private practice in New York City. Nguyen has served some nine years
as a trial judge, at both superior court and federal level. Sotomayor
worked five years as a trial judge.
“The process of judging does not change merely by my ethnicity,”
Nguyen said at her 2009 hearing. “The law remains the same.”