Article III Asian-American Judges by President
Under the Constitution, the President appoints federal judges with the “advice and consent” of the Senate. The President usually consults senators or other elected officials concerning candidates for vacancies on the federal courts. The President’s power to appoint new federal judges is not the judiciary’s only interaction with the executive branch.
Order of Appointment | |||||||
| PRESIDENT RICHARD M. NIXON 1969–1974 | |||||||
| Judge | Court | Commission | All Art. III Courts | Circuit Courts | District Courts | Female Judges | Status |
| Herbert Young Cho Choy | Ninth Circuit | 4/23/1971 | 1 | 1 | - | - | Deceased 3/10/04 |
| Shiro Kashiwa | Court of Claims** | 1/3/1972 | 2 | 2 | - | - | Retired 1/7/86 |
| PRESIDENT GERALD FORD 1974–1977 | |||||||
| Judge | Court | Commission | All Art. III Courts | Circuit Courts | District Courts | Female Judges | Status |
| Dick Yin Wong | Hawaii | 4/25/1975 | 3 | - | 1 | - | Deceased 12/26/78 |
| Robert Mitsuhiro Takasugi | California (CD) | 5/7/1976 | 4 | - | 2 | - | Deceased 8/4/09 |
PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER 1977–1981 | |||||||
| Judge | Court | Commission | All Art. III Courts | Circuit Courts | District Courts | Female Judges | Status |
| Thomas Tang | Ninth Circuit | 10/12/1977 | 5 | 3 | - | - | Deceased 7/18/95 |
| Atsushi Wallace Tashima | California (CD) | 6/30/1980 | 6 | - | 3 | - | Elevated 1/8/96 |
| Walter Meheula Heen | Hawaii | No commission | 7 | - | 4 | - | Not confirmed 12/16/81 |
| PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN 1981–1989 | |||||||
| Judge | Court | Commission | All Art. III Courts | Circuit Courts | District Courts | Female Judges | Status |
| Harold Michael Fong | Hawaii | 6/21/1982 | 8 | - | 5 | - | Deceased 4/20/95 |
| Ronald S.W. Lew | California (CD) | 5/7/1987 | 9 | - | 6 | - | Senior Status 9/19/06 |
| PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON 1993–2001 | |||||||
| Judge | Court | Commission | All Art. III Courts | Circuit Courts | District Courts | Female Judges | Status |
| Denny Chin | New York (SD) | 8/10/1994 | 10 | - | 7 | - | Elevated 4/26/10 |
| George H. King | California (CD) | 6/30/1995 | 11 | - | 8 | - | Terminated due to Retirement 1/6/17 |
| Atsushi Wallace Tashima | Ninth Circuit | 1/4/1996 | + | 4 | - | - | Senior Status 6/30/04 |
| Anthony W. Ishii | California (ED) | 10/14/1997 | 12 | - | 9 | - | Senior Status 10/31/12 |
| Susan Oki Mollway | Hawaii | 6/23/1998 | 13 | - | 10 | 1 | Senior Status 11/6/15 |
| PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH 2001–2009 | |||||||
| Judge | Court | Commission | All Art. III Courts | Circuit Courts | District Courts | Female Judges | Status |
| Dana M. Sabraw | California (SD) | 9/26/2003 | 14 | - | 11 | - | Active |
| George H. Wu | California (CD) | 4/17/2007 | 15 | - | 12 | - | Active |
| Amul Roger Thapar | Kentucky (ED) | 1/4/2008 | 16 | - | 13 | - | Elevated 5/30/17 |
| Kiyo A. Matsumoto | New York (ED) | 7/22/2008 | 17 | - | 14 | 2 | Active |
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA 2009–2017 | |||||||
| Judge | Court | Commission | All Art. III Courts | Circuit Courts | District Courts | Female Judges | Status |
| Jacqueline H. Nguyen | California (CD) | 12/4/2009 | 18 | - | 15 | 3 | Elevated 5/15/12 |
| Dolly M. Gee | California (CD) | 1/4/2010 | 19 | - | 16 | 4 | Active |
| Denny Chin | Second Circuit | 4/23/2010 | + | 5 | - | - | Active |
| Lucy H. Koh | California (ND) | 6/9/2010 | 20 | - | 17 | 5 | Active |
| Edmond E-Min Chang | Illinois (ND) | 12/20/2010 | 21 | - | 18 | - | Active |
| Leslie E. Kobayashi | Hawaii | 12/22/2010 | 22 | - | 19 | 6 | Active |
| Edward M. Chen | California (ND) | 5/12/2011 | 23 | - | 20 | - | Active |
| Cathy Bissoon | Pennsylvania (WD) | 10/19/2011 | 24 | - | 21 | 7 | Active |
| Miranda Mai Du | Nevada | 3/30/2012 | 25 | - | 22 | 8 | Active |
| John Zihun Lee | Illinois (ND) | 5/8/2012 | 26 | - | 23 | - | Active |
| Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen | Ninth Circuit | 5/14/2012 | + | 6 | - | + | Active |
| Lorna G. Schofield | New York (SD) | 12/13/2012 | 27 | - | 24 | 9 | Active |
| Pamela K. Chen ± | New York (ED) | 3/5/2013 | 28 | - | 25 | 10 | Active |
| Derrick K. Watson | Hawaii | 4/23/2013 | 29 | - | 26 | - | Active |
| Sri Srinivasan | DC Circuit | 5/24/2013 | 30 | 7 | - | - | Active |
| Raymond T. Chen | Federal Circuit | 8/2/2013 | 31 | 8 | - | - | Active |
| Vince Chhabria | California (ND) | 3/7/2014 | 32 | - | 27 | - | Active |
| Manish S. Shah | Illinois (ND) | 5/1/2014 | 33 | - | 28 | - | Active |
| Theodore D. Chuang | Maryland | 5/2/2014 | 34 | - | 29 | - | Active |
| Indira Talwani | Massachusetts | 5/12/2014 | 35 | - | 30 | 11 | Active |
| Amit Priyavadan Mehta | District of Columbia | 12/19/2014 | 36 | - | 31 | - | Active |
| Jennifer Choe Groves | U.S. Court of International Trade | 6/8/2016 | 37 | - | - | 12 | Active |
| PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP 2017– | |||||||
| Judge | Court | Commission | All Art. III Courts | Circuit Courts | District Courts | Female Judges | Status |
| Amul Roger Thapar | Sixth Circuit | 5/25/2017 | + | 9 | - | - | Active |
| James C. Ho | Fifth Circuit | 1/4/2018 | - | Active | |||
| Karen Gren Scholer | Texas (ND) | 3/6/2018 | 13 | Active | |||
| John B. Nalbandian | Sixth Circuit | 5/17/2018 | - | Active | |||
| Jill Aiko Otake | Hawaii | 8/3/2018 | 14 | Active | |||
| Neomi Jehangir Rao | D.C. Circuit | 3/18/2019 | 15 | Active | |||
| Michael Hun Park | Second Circuit | 5/13/2019 | - | Active | |||
| Kenneth Kiyul Lee | Ninth Circuit | 6/12/2019 | - | Active | |||
| Nicholas J. Ranjan | Pennsylvania (WD) | 7/12/2019 | - | Active | |||
| Martha Maria Pacold | Illinois (ND) | 8/16/2019 | 16 | Active | |||
| Patrick Joseph Bumatay | Ninth Circuit | 12/12/2019 | - | Active | |||
| Anuraag Hari Singhal | Florida (SD) | 12/20/2019 | - | Active | |||
| Diane Gujarati | New York (ED) | 9/18/2020 | 17 | Active | |||
Legend
| CD - Central District | ED - Eastern District | MD - Middle District | ND - Northern District | SD - Southern District |
| WD - Western District | (+) Previously appointed to federal court (±) LGBTQ+ | * Reorganized as the Court of International Trade in 1980 | ** Transferred to the Federal Circuit in 1982 | *** Current Chief Judge |
Data is based on information collected through May 7, 2020. To learn more about the federal courts go to www.fjc.gov.
Active Article III Judges
Click below to view a complete list of Article III judges based on race or ethnicity.
 African-American |  Asian-American & Pacific Islander |
 Hispanic/Latino |  LGBT |
 Native American |  Presidential Appointment |
United States Circuit Courts
| First Circuit Second Circuit Third Circuit Fourth Circuit Fifth Circuit Sixth Circuit | Seventh Circuit Eighth Circuit Ninth Circuit Tenth Circuit Eleventh Circuit Fed/DC Circuit |
Supreme Court and USCIT
| U.S. Supreme Court | U.S. Court of International Trade |
Appointments by President
| African-American | Asian-American & Pacific Islander |
| Native American | Hispanic/Latino |
| LGBT |
President Donald J. Trump
As of October 18, 2017, after about nine months into the Trump administration, it appears that, of the 60 nominees, only five are non-white and only 11 are female. Six of President Trump’s judicial nominees have been confirmed by the Senate, including one justice to the Supreme Court, four judges to the Courts of Appeals and two judges to districts court. All seven judges are men, six of which are white and one of Asian-American descent.