Wednesday, October 6, 2021

Judge Koh' senate hearing

NLJ reports Biden 9th Circuit Pick Draws Republican Ire Over COVID-19 Religious Gathering Ruling

  • Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, suggested she might have an implicit bias against religious people. “I’m a person of faith, so I would have to be having a bias against my own self,” Koh replied.
  • She said that, as a trial judge, she has appreciated “clear guidance” from appellate courts. “When I sat by designation on the Ninth Circuit, it gave me a new perspective on my own cases, on how to make a record, on what I should make sure to address in my own rulings,” Koh said. “And I’m hoping—since that experience gave me new eyes—I’m hoping that my experience as a trial judge, if confirmed, would give me just a really good perspective as an appellate judge.”
  • If confirmed, Koh would be the first Korean American woman to sit on a federal appeals court. She described how her mother, as a child, escaped from North Korea to South Korea before later immigrating to the U.S. Koh also described the patriotism of her late father, also an immigrant, including how he would take them to presidential libraries and stand in the rain for processions when presidents died.
  • “I think it is so important to reaffirm the American Dream that anybody can become a judge in the United States,” Koh said. “I think, also, it’s important to just enhance the confidence that everyone has, the community has, in our justice system.”