Obama Nominates Jacqueline Nguyen to Ninth Circuit
President Obama nominated Judge Jacqueline Nguyen to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week. Nguyen has served as a U.S. District Judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles since 2009. She was a Los Angeles Superior Court judge before migrating to the federal bench.
Originally from Dalat, Vietnam, Judge Nguyen received her AB from Occidental College in 1987, and her JD from UCLA School of Law in 1991.
Nguyen has legal experience in both the private and public sectors, working as a litigation associate at Musick, Peeler & Garrett LLP before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central District of California as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the criminal division.
While in the U.S. Attorney's Office, Nguyen was a federal prosecutor in both the General Crimes and Public Corruption and Government Fraud sections, and was a member of the office's Organized Crime Strike Force. She served as Deputy Chief of the General Crimes section from 2000 to 2002.
The Senate has approved 20 of Obama's nominees for the Circuit Courts of Appeal. If confirmed, Judge Nguyen would fill a new seat on Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, reports the Los Angeles Times. President Obama initially nominated Berkeley Professor Goodwin Liu to the seat, but Liu did not have enough support in the Senate to survive the confirmation process. The seat has been vacant since it was authorized in January 2009.
There are currently three vacancies on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition to Judge Nguyen's nomination to fill the new position on the court, President Obama has nominated Alaska Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen to fill Senior Judge Andrew Kleinfeld's seat.
Related Resources:
- FindLaw's Ninth Circuit blog (FindLaw)
- President Obama Nominates Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen to Serve on the United States Court of Appeals (White House)
- Confirming Circuit Judges in the 112th Senate (FindLaw)
- Federal Judicial Vacancies Reaching Crisis Point (The Washington Post)
- Brown Nominates Liu for Supreme Court (FindLaw's California Case Law blog)
