Lucy Koh

Lucy Haeran Koh (born August 7, 1968) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and a United States Circuit Judge-designate of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She is the first U.S. district court judge of Korean descent and the first female Korean American federal judge in the United States.[1]

Lucy Koh
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Designate
Assuming office
TBD
Appointed byJoe Biden
SucceedingRichard Paez
Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California
Assumed office
June 9, 2010
Appointed byBarack Obama
Preceded byRonald Whyte
Personal details
Born
Lucy Haeran Koh

(1968-08-07) August 7, 1968
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Spouse(s)Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar
Children2
EducationHarvard University (BA, JD)

Early life and education

Born in Washington, D.C., Koh was the first member of her family to be born in the United States. Her mother, a refugee from North Korea, had escaped the country at the age of ten after walking two weeks to South Korea. Her father was a veteran of the Korean War, where he fought communist forces.[2]

Koh spent most of her childhood in Mississippi, where her mother was an academic at Alcorn State University. She also spent parts of her young life in Maryland and Oklahoma. In 1986, Koh graduated from Norman High School in 1986 in Norman, Oklahoma. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in social studies in 1990 and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1993.[3][4][5][6]

Professional career

From 1993 until 1994, Koh worked for the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary as a Women's Law and Public Policy Fellow. From 1994 until 1997, Koh worked for the United States Department of Justice, first as a Special Counsel in the Office of Legislative Affairs (1994–1996) and then as a Special Assistant to the United States Deputy Attorney General (1996–1997).[7] From 1997 until 2000, Koh served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the Central District of California.

From 2000 until 2002, she worked as a Senior Associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, a Palo Alto, California law firm. From 2002 until 2008, Koh worked as a litigation partner at the Silicon Valley office of the law firm McDermott Will & Emery representing technology companies in patent, trade secret and commercial civil matters.[8]

In January 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Koh a judge on the Santa Clara County Superior Court, a position she held until becoming a U.S. District Judge in 2010.[7][6]

Federal judicial service

District court service

On January 20, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Koh on the recommendation of California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California vacated by judge Ronald M. Whyte, who assumed senior status in 2009.[5] On March 4, 2010, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to move her nomination to the full Senate.[9] The Senate confirmed Koh in a 90–0 vote on June 7, 2010.[10] She received her commission on June 9, 2010.[6]

Expired nomination to court of appeals under Obama

On February 25, 2016, President Obama nominated Koh to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, to the seat vacated by Judge Harry Pregerson, who took senior status on December 11, 2015.[11][12] On July 13, 2016, a hearing on her nomination was held before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.[13] On September 15, 2016, her nomination was reported out of committee by a vote of 13–7. Her nomination expired on January 3, 2017, with the end of the 114th Congress.[6] President Donald Trump appointed Daniel P. Collins to the same seat in 2019.[14]

Renomination to court of appeals under Biden

On September 8, 2021, President Joe Biden announced his intention to renominate Koh to be a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.[15] On September 20, 2021, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Koh to the seat to be vacated by Judge Richard Paez, upon confirmation of a successor.[16] On October 6, 2021, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[17] On October 28, 2021, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 13–9 vote.[18]

On December 9, 2021, the U.S. Senate voted 51–38 for cloture on Koh's nomination. On December 13, 2021, the U.S. Senate confirmed Koh in a 50-45 vote.[19][20] Koh is the first Korean-American woman to serve as a federal appellate judge and the second Asian Pacific American woman to serve on the Ninth Circuit from California, after Jacqueline Nguyen.[21] She is awaiting her judicial commission for her appellate court judgeship.

Notable cases as a district court judge

Koh has presided over litigation including Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, FTC v. Qualcomm (finding antitrust liability for conduct in licensing standard-essential patents, later reversed), and multi-district litigation, including the Yahoo and Anthem data breaches and Apple and Google privacy litigation.[22]

In 2020, Koh presided over a case in which a coalition of local governments, activist groups, and American Indian tribes sued the commerce department over early completion of the 2020 census. She issued a ruling that ultimately resulted in extending the once-a-decade count from September 30 to October 15.[23][24]

Koh presided over Tandon v. Newsom, a case addressing state and county restrictions on all gatherings in private homes in a county with widespread Covid-19 transmission. The Ninth Circuit affirmed Koh, but the Ninth Circuit's ruling was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court indicated that it was the "fifth time the Court has summarily rejected the Ninth Circuit's analysis of California's COVID restrictions on religious exercise."[25][26]

Personal life

Koh is married to Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, the President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former California Supreme Court Justice and Stanford University law professor.[27] They have two children.[28]

See also

References
  1. Bob Egelko, Obama picks Korean American for federal bench, San Francisco Chronicle (January 22, 2010).
  2. Deakin, Michelle; January 1; 2011. "Stepping Up: Lucy Koh '93". Harvard Law Today. Retrieved 2021-10-06.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. "Lucy Koh '93 nominated to serve as federal district court judge". Web.archive.org. 14 December 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  4. "Lucy Koh '93 nominated to serve as federal district court judge". Web.archive.org. 4 June 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  5. President Obama Nominates Five to Serve on the United States District Court Bench Archived 2017-02-16 at the Wayback Machine, whitehouse.gov (January 20, 2010).
  6. "Koh, Lucy Haeran – Federal Judicial Center". Fjc.gov.
  7. Governor Schwarzenegger Appoints Lucy Koh to Santa Clara County Superior Court (January 25, 2008).
  8. "Senate Confirms Lucy Haeran Koh as Federal Judge in California's Northern District". Metropolitan News Company. June 8, 2010. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  9. Egelko, Bob (2010-03-04). "San Jose judge one step away from federal bench". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 2010-03-04.
  10. "Kagan Nomination Not Stopping Other Nominees". The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times. June 7, 2010. Retrieved 2012-12-24.
  11. "President Obama Nominates Judge Lucy Haeran Koh to serve on the United States Court of Appeals". whitehouse.gov. 25 February 2016 – via National Archives.
  12. "Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov. 25 February 2016 – via National Archives.
  13. "United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary". Judiciary.senate.gov.
  14. "U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 116th Congress - 1st Session". Senate.gov. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  15. "President Biden Names Seventh Round of Judicial Nominees" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. September 8, 2021. Retrieved September 8, 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  16. "Nominations and Withdrawal Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. September 20, 2021. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  17. "Nominations". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. October 6, 2021.
  18. "Daily Digest: Thursday, October 28, 2021". Congress.gov. Retrieved November 8, 2021.
  19. "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Lucy H. Koh, of California, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Ninth Circuit)". United States Senate. December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2021.
  20. "Senate Confirms First Korean-American Woman Appeals Court Judge". news.bloomberglaw.com. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  21. "President Biden Makes Judges Koh And Thomas First Korean-American And African American Female Appeals Court Judges In California". Oakland News Now. September 8, 2021. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
  22. "Federal Trade Commission v. Qualcomm Inc., No. 19-16122 (9th Cir. 2020)". August 23, 2019. p. 9. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
  23. Wang, Hansi Lo (September 30, 2020). "Appeals Court Rejects Push To End Census Early By Trump Administration". NPR. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  24. Wang, Hansi Lo (October 13, 2020). "Supreme Court Allows Trump Administration To End Census Counting On Oct. 15". NPR. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  25. Savage, David (April 9, 2021). "In 5-4 vote, Supreme Court lifts California's COVID ban on group Bible study in homes". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
  26. Ritesh Tandon v. Gavin Newsom, 593 U.S. 20A151 (2021).
  27. Howard Mintz, Santa Clara County judge becomes first Asian-American federal judge in Bay Area history, San Jose Mercury News (June 7, 2010).
  28. Kristen V. Brown: In Silicon Valley, Lucy Koh is the law, SFGate, August 10, 2014
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.