President Barack Obama is appointing women and minorities to federal judgeships at an unprecedented rate, and nowhere is the evidence more clear than in the Golden State.
Last week, Lucy Koh in California's Northern District became the nation's first Korean-American district court judge; and in December Dolly Gee was confirmed in the state's Central District as the first Chinese-American federal district court judge in the country.
Other minority nominees are pending: Edward Davila would become the only current Latino judge in the Northern District; and Goodwin Liu of San Francisco would become the nation's first Chinese-American federal appellate court judge.
Obama already has done more to diversify the Supreme Court than any other president by choosing two women for the high court. And his first choice, Sonia Sotomayor, is the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court.
So far, only 31 of Obama's 72 district and appellate nominees have been confirmed, even though there are an estimated 100 vacancies around the country.
Of Obama's nominees, 43 percent are women and minorities, a much higher rate than any of his predecessors, according to an analysis by Alliance for Justice, a liberal advocacy group based in Washington (Source: Rob Hotakainen, Miamiherld.com).