Okay, everyone's heard the big news about Justice David Souter's decision to step down from the Supreme Court and now the names come flying out.  Of course, the usual caveat of "they must be qualified first" are always thrown out, but realistically, there are plenty of "qualified" people to serve on the Supreme Court, depending on what criteria you establish as being "qualified."  After that, politics comes into play.  On this, Obama has publicly spoken a little on this:

"We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom," Obama said. "The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criterion by which I'm going to be selecting my judges."

That sounds great, as I personally consider diversity of perspective an important criteria.

President Obama will inevitably get pressure from different communities to name someone from their own ranks. A common meme that seems to be popular is that Obama will first name a Hispanic/Latino to the High Court, and possibly a female to get a two-fer.  Sonia Sotomajor or Kim McLane Wardlaw are two names that fit this category.

While it would be great to have the first Hispanic/Latino on the High Court, Asian Americans should not be afraid to push forward qualified candidates from our community as well. We've discussed a few on this website before, including:

Harold Hongju Koh whose confirmation to be Obama's Legal Advisor to the State Department has been met with some resistance from Republicans.

Neal Katyal who would be an excellent choice, especially since he is so young, only 39 years old.

Doris Ling-Cohan who sits on the New York State Supreme Court and has been supportive of LGBT rights.

Who are some other names we should be pushing forward?  Any other Asian American women? And who is our community should we turn to take the lead on this push?