Former Vietnamese Refugee Confirmed as Federal Judge

December 3, 2009

ASIAN AMERICAN LEADERS APPLAUD JACQUELINE NGUYEN’S HISTORIC CONFIRMATION

WASHINGTON — Another racial hurdle was cleared [this week] when the Senate confirmed Jacqueline H. Nguyen to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, making her the first Vietnamese American Article III judge.

“Judge Nguyen has made history and we congratulate her,” said Joseph J. Centeno National Asian Pacific American Bar Association president. “She has an excellent record with the California Superior Court and we are confident that she will serve as an outstanding District Court judge.”

The Senate approved Judge Nguyen this afternoon by a vote of 97-0. Judge Nguyen will also be the first Asian Pacific American female Article III judge in California history. Article III judgeships are lifetime presidential appointments.

“We have historically stressed the importance of diversity in the judiciary and hope that Judge Nguyen’s confirmation is the first of many which will change the makeup of the federal judiciary to better reflect the American people,” said Karen K. Narasaki, Asian American Justice Center president and executive director.

Prior to her Superior Court appointment, Judge Nguyen served in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney’s Office. Before that, she was a commercial disputes, intellectual property and construction defects attorney with Musick, Peeler & Garrett in Los Angeles.

“This is an historic hearing and an historic day …the progress that we make today is long overdue,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy stated after his panel approved Judge Nguyen in September.

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.”