President Obama nominated Judge Jacqueline Nguyen to United States District Court judgeship, Central District in California, today. According to a White House release:

Judge Jacqueline Nguyen is currently a Superior Court Judge for the County of Los Angeles, a position to which she was appointed in August 2002. Judge Nguyen received her undergraduate degree from Occidental College in 1987 and her law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1991. From 1991 to 1995, Nguyen worked in private practice where she specialized in civil litigation. From 1995 until August 2002, Nguyen was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California. During her tenure in that office, she served as Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section. Judge Nguyen is being nominated to the United States District Court for the Central District of California and was rated well-qualified by the ABA.

From this older article in Asianweek, it seems like she's had an amazing journey:

Nguyen was 9 years old when her family boarded a packed helicopter in Saigon for a flight to freedom. Gunfire could be heard in the distance as communist troops closed in on the South Vietnamese capitol.

Years later in California, she and her siblings joined their mother to clean dental offices while her father worked at night as a computer programmer and during the morning as a gas station attendant.

With that same family determination, Nguyen earned a scholarship, graduated from Occidental College and UCLA’s School of Law, and later became a federal prosecutor. On weekends, she assisted her mother at the family donut shop in North Hollywood until it was sold.

“I did a lot of my homework at the donut shop,” she recounted. “Throughout my college years, my mom was still working a lot of hours. On the weekends I would come home … to help her out for a few hours. On the weekends I would take our son Nolan there so he could spend some time with her.”

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and the Asian American Justice Center were quick to laud the nomination:

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC) celebrate the nomination of the Honorable Jacqueline Nguyen for United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Central District of California.  If confirmed, Judge Nguyen would be the nation’s first-ever Vietnamese American to serve as an Article III judge. She would also become the third-ever Asian Pacific American female Article III judge in United States history, and the first-ever Asian Pacific American woman to serve as an Article III judge in California.

 

“Judge Nguyen’s nomination is a promising start for the Obama Administration and is extremely significant for the Asian Pacific American community,” said Andrew T. Hahn, Sr., President of NAPABA.  “Given that Asian Pacific Americans represent 15% of California’s population and less than 7% of the state’s Article III judges, the community is long overdue for increased representation at this level. Judge Nguyen is an extremely well-qualified jurist who is uniquely positioned for this important nomination.”

 

There are currently no active Asian Pacific American federal appellate court judges, and of the approximately 850 federal judges nationwide, less than 1% are Asian Pacific American.

The release continues...

Judge Nguyen’s courageous life story epitomizes the American Dream. For the past seven years, Judge Nguyen has served as a Judge on the Los Angeles Superior Court.  Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Nguyen served for six years as an Assistant United States Attorney with the Criminal Division, and ultimately as the Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section.  As a child, she escaped the fall of South Vietnam with her family through a harrowing trip, starting with a plane ride temporarily separating her from her father, through chaotic Saigon, to the Philippines, to Guam, and eventually, to Camp Pendleton, California. Judge Nguyen embraced her new life in America with grace, fortitude, determination, and cheerful modesty, assisting her mother in cleaning dental offices while growing up. She eventually earned a scholarship to Occidental College before attending the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, continuing all the while to help her mother in the family donut shop on the weekends.

Let's hope for a speedy confirmation process.