President Joe Biden has the opportunity to improve representation in the federal judiciary, and he needs to use his power to nominate more Asian American judges.
One of my greatest frustrations with discussions about increased minority representation is how rarely Asians are mentioned — if at all. Asian Americans continue to struggle with representation in so many areas, including the federal judiciary.
Asian Americans — despite making up six percent of the population — account for less than three percent of active judges in the lower federal courts in 2020, according to the Center for American Progress.
Furthermore, there has never been an Asian American justice on the Supreme Court. And it’s unlikely there will be in the foreseeable future — Biden has already pledged to nominate a Black woman to the court.
At age 82, Justice Stephen Breyer — who was nominated by former President Bill Clinton — seems to be the most likely justice to retire within Biden’s term of office.
The next oldest justice is 72-year-old Clarence Thomas, who in 2019 publicly said he wasn’t retiring. The relative youth of the other Supreme Court Justices means multiple vacancies in the next four years are unlikely.
If a vacancy does come up, Biden should honor the commitment he already made to nominate a Black woman to the nation’s highest court. A president’s word matters.
Still, it is frustrating and disappointing to know Asians will be passed up yet again.
The 2020 Democratic Party platform pledges to “appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices … who look like America.” But I don’t see anyone on the Supreme Court who looks like me, and Biden’s pledge all but ensures it will stay that way for the next four years.
Compared to other political actions — which may require spending political capital and undergoing a tedious process — nominating an Asian American justice to the Supreme Court wouldn’t be so difficult.
Our country has had 114 chances to nominate an Asian justice. We have been overlooked 144 times in a process that is fairly simple in our democracy — this makes the reality that much harder to swallow.
As a compromise, Biden can at least nominate Asian American judges to federal district and appellate courts.
As much as I loathed former President Donald Trump’s presidency, he did a respectable job of increasing Asian American representation in the federal courts. Trump appointed seven Asians to federal appellate courts, outperforming former Presidents Barack Obama and George Bush.
While I might not politically agree with these appointees’ opinions, having increased representation in the federal judiciary makes becoming a federal judge feel more like a possibility and less like a fantasy to Asian Americans across the country.
This is why representation matters: people, especially kids, can see themselves in these seven additional judges.
I don’t think I’ll become a federal appeals court judge. But the position feels attainable in part due to people such as Judge Denny Chin.
Chin, a Hong Kong native, currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and has presided over high-profile cases, including the trial of disgraced financier Bernie Madoff.
I am not saying Asian Americans are the only underrepresented group that should be appointed — Hispanic Americans, for example, are also few and far between in the federal judiciary. Nor am I calling for a quota for Asian Americans or any other race in the federal courts. A judiciary that looks more like America does not mean it must adhere to the exact percentage of the nation’s demographics.
However, considering Asians will most likely be waiting past Biden’s term to see someone who looks like them on the Supreme Court, I think it is only fair to ask him to ensure they are represented at the lower levels of the judiciary.
