Professor Goodwin Liu

LOS ANGELES – This week California Governor Jerry Brown nominated UC Berkeley Law Professor Goodwin H. Liu to become a Justice of the California Supreme Court. Professor Liu is the first Asian Pacific American state high court nomination by Governor Brown, who continues to make choices based on his strong belief in diversity.

During his first Gubernatorial Administration from 1975 to 1983, Governor Brown appointed the first African American to the California Supreme Court (Justice Wiley Manuel, 1977), the first female and first female Chief Justice to the California Supreme Court (Chief Justice Rose Bird, 1977), the first Hispanic American to the California Supreme Court (Justice Cruz Reynoso, 1982), and the first openly gay judge to any court nationwide (Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephen Lachs, 1979).

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 28, 2011) — On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (CA-32), Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, and seven of the caucus’s Executive Board Members met with senior White House officials to discuss topics of high importance to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

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LOS ANGELES (JUNE 30, 2011) – The Asian Pacific American Legal Center, a member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, announced Thursday the completion of a joint mapping proposal prepared by three leading voices in the California redistricting process – APALC and the Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans for Fair Redistricting, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the African American Redistricting Collaborative.

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Judge Cindy Truong

Cindy H. Truong was elected the District 7 Judge for Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, in November 2010. The term ends in 2014.

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Rinku Sen is the President and Executive Director of the Applied Research Center and Publisher of Colorlines.com.

By Rinku Sen

The U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the Dukes v. Wal-Mart sex discrimination case on June 21, 2011, a frustrating ruling that doesn’t challenge the existence of bias, but that exempts the company from accountability. The case highlights the difficulty of addressing discrimination at a time when intentional bias is both illegal and socially unacceptable, and yet obvious gender and racial gaps remain. If much, perhaps even most, discrimination is unintentional on a personal level, what responsibility do employers (or our government, or each of us as individuals) have for addressing its institutional consequences?

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WASHINGTON (May 31, 2011) – The Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) and Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), members of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, expressed disappointment with Thursday’s 5-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. Whiting, which upheld an Arizona law imposing sanctions on employers who hire unauthorized workers and requires participation in the federal E-Verify system, a program piloted in 1997 that checks the work authorization status of employees against government records.

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WASHINGTON (May 25, 2011)  – The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association expressed disappointment over the missed opportunity to increase the diversity of the federal appellate courts by confirming the judicial nomination of Professor Goodwin Liu, who last week formally notified the White House of his request that his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court be withdrawn.

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WASHINGTON (May 24, 2011) – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder delivered the following Keynote Address at the Department of Justice Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month event on Tuesday. He was introduced by Richard Toscano of the Equal Employment Opportunity Office in the Justice Management Division.

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Professor Goodwin Liu

AAP staff report

WASHINGTON (May 19, 2011) – The U.S. Senate voted last week to halt the confirmation of Goodwin Liu, President Obama’s judicial nominee to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – and the failure of a cloture vote on his nomination has prompted comments ranging in disappointment to anger from Asian Pacific Islander American leaders.

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Judge Edward Chen

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 10, 2011) – The United States Senate on Tuesday voted 56-42 to confirm Judge Edward M. Chen to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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