PRESIDENT BIDEN, PLEASE NOMINATE THE FIRST ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN (APA) SUPREME COURT JUSTICE NOW

SAN DIEGO, CA -- Greetings!

Last week, Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement from the United States Supreme Court after 28 years of service. Breyer’s departure follows a long and enviable career that included highlevel positions at the Department of Justice, Harvard Law School and the First Circuit Court of Appeals. His judiciary philosophy tended to be wonky than those of his peers, focusing on technocratic concepts and greater democratic principles, rather than broad-based rights or historical interpretations. But the irony of Breyer’s retirement is that it showcases the normalcy of the status quo in an age of deep partisan rancor over the Supreme Court.

The current ideological composition of the Supreme Court is six conservatives and three liberals. This directly correlates with the ideologies of the presidents who nominated the respective justices. Liberals remain livid by the Senate Republicans’ refusal to ever hold a confirmation for then – Chief Judge Merrick Garland upon the death of Justice Antonia Scalia in 2016, which resulted in the first of three transformative judicial appointments from President Trump during his four years in office. However, even assessing that the evenly divided Senate were to confirm President Biden’s nominee, the ideological composition of the Court would stay 6-3 and is likely to remain conservative-dominated for years to come.

President Biden last week also reaffirmed his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the high court and said he intends to announce his selection by the end of February.

Biden has revealed no name, but said at the White House last Thursday: “The person I will nominate will be a person of extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity.”

Incidentally, critics have already seized on Biden’s commitment to nominate a Black woman to the court, with some arguing that the pool of qualified candidates should not be limited by race and gender.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, for instance, told ABC News last Sunday: “I believe that diversity benefits the Supreme Court. But the way that the president has handled this nomination has been clumsy at best.”

Moving forward, and as President Biden considers the Supreme Court candidates for the justice vacancy; I say the president has an opportunity to truly cement this legacy.

Records indicate that in January 2009, there were only eight Asian Pacific Americans in lifetime,

Jesse T. Reyes

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federal judgeships throughout the country – out of 870 potential positions. What’s more there had not been an APA judge on a U.S. Court of Appeals – the level just below the Supreme Court – in almost five years.

Today (as of 2016 statistics), there are 25 Asian Pacific Americans federal judge, including four at the Court of Appeals. In accounts, President Barack Obama has appointed more APA federal judges than all American presidents in history combined, and the nine APA women he has appointed is even more remarkable considering there were only two prior to 2009.

And how did former President Obama do it?

“We deserve – and demand – a government that is reflective of our nation’s changing demographics,” says Christopher Kang who is the National Director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) and former Deputy Assistant and Deputy Counsel to President Obama in the Office of the White House Counsel, where he was in charge of the selection, vetting and confirmation of the president’s judicial nominees.

As the lawyer in charge of the day-to-day selection, vetting, and confirmation of President Obama’s judicial nominees for more than four years, Christopher Kang can attest and tell anyone that it actually was quite simple: President Obama made a commitment to a judiciary that resembles the nation it serves!

Of course, each of the president’s appointed judges has the necessary experience, intellect and integrity. But through President Obama’s efforts, federal judges are now beginning to reflect the diversity of our nation – racial, gender, and sexual orientation – and today, at the Court of Appeals level, a majority of judges are women and minorities.

President Obama has also sought a judiciary that encompasses the range of experience in the legal profession, including more judges who had represented the poor in their criminal defense and legal services.

While judges will not necessarily consider a case differently because of their background – they are sworn to uphold the law and precedent –so when the men and women who deliver justice look more like the communities they serve, there is greater confidence in our justice system overall.

Also, as judges break barriers throughout the country, they serve as role models for generations to come.

Christopher Kang has seen this all first hand. In 2009, he had the honor of working on Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation, as she became the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice. A year later, Kang assisted on Justice Elena Kagan’s confirmation. For the first time, three women (along with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg) sat on the Supreme Court at the same time. Throughout those processes and beyond, these remarkable women had an indelible impact on our nation – not just in their rulings and their commitment to equal justice under the law but also in inspiring countless Americans that the doors to opportunity are opening to all.

For my two cents, I say, too that while Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Ginsburg and retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor certainly are role models for my one-and-only granddaughter Taylor – I also want her to have a role model who is of Asian Pacific American heritage. Incidentally, and while growing up, Kang himself was bullied for his

“slanted eyes,” his parent’s accent and the food they ate. He was constantly asked if he knows karate and complimented for “speaking English good.” Even now, Kang has resigned him to a lifetime of being asked, “Where are you really from?”

I know that an Asian Pacific American Supreme Court Justice won’t prevent my granddaughter from experiencing all of these, but it would go measurably far in chipping away at the stereotype that she is a “perpetual foreigner” – that we are something other than simply an American. And it would give her another example of success at the highest level to emulate in whatever she decides to do.

In 2010, it was past time for the Supreme Court to have more than two female justices. Today, especially as nearly half our nation’s children are from communities of color, it is genuinely time for the

Supreme Court to have more than two Justices of color. And, more specifically, it is time for the first Asian Pacific American justice.

This day and age, Asian Pacific Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the nation. There were almost twice as many Asian Pacific American voters in 2012 as there were in 2000, and by 2040, it is projected that the number of Asian American registered voters will double yet again.

“We deserve – and demand at the age of 42, the Honorable Sean Reyes was appointed by Governor Gary Herbert as Utah’s 21st Attorney General. Reyes took over an office racked with scandals and inefficiency in the midst of some of the most significant constitutional issues in state history. Within a year, he reorganized and re-energized the office internally and recaptured the trust of the State with striking leadership, innovative programs and historic wins against drug dealers, human traffickers, child predators, and white-collar criminals. After winning the election in 2014 by one of the largest margins nationwide, Reyes was selected in 2015 by the Republican National Committees as one of its four national rising stars. After graduating summa cum laude from Brigham Young University in 1994, Reyes earned his law degree with honors from U.C. Berkeley in 1997. He practiced for nearly fourteen years at Parsons Behle & Latimer, the largest law firm in the State of Utah, where he became one of the first minority lawyers to make partner at a major Utah firm. While there, Reyes represented clients on some of the largest and most high profile litigation cases in the history of the State. He urged or briefed cases before state and federal courts throughout the country, including the Utah Supreme Court and Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. He has been honored nationally and locally with a long list of awards for his legal skills, leadership and unparalleled commitment to public service and has founded and served in multiple non-profit organizations.

– a government that is reflective of our nation’s ever changing demographics!”

Amen to that!!

The good news during Kang’s time is that President Obama understood the importance of a judiciary that resembles the nation it serves, and his commitment had tripled the number of APA federal judges in just seven years then.

However, 25 APA federal judges out of 870 is only the beginning of real change, if I must go over it.

To leave a truly historic legacy on behalf of Asian Pacific Americans, we – my fellow “kababayans” - must urge the present chief executive –President Joe Biden – to take the next step by nominating an Asian Pacific American to the Supreme Court.

It is our time, Mr. President… please, Sir!

For starters, how about nominating Utah’s Attorney General? In 2013,

The son of a Spanish-Filipino immigrant father, who fled the Marcos regime and a Japanese Hawaiian mother, Attorney General Reyes is Utah’s first minority elected official statewide. Reyes and his wife, Saysha are the proud parents of 6 children. He is a former collegiate volleyball player and mixed martial arts fighter who enjoys speaking at Comic Cons, playing basketball while coaching his kids, dancing with Saysha, watching Sports Center, cooking, shooting guns and rapping on Bloomberg News.

I know that Utah’s Attorney General Reyes is a die-hard Republican, so if you prefer Mr. President – how about a man from your own party – California’s very own first Filipino-American Attorney General – Rob Banta?

See JESSE REYES on 9