Source: United States Senator for California – Dianne Feinstein
Washington—Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today highlighted her support for Judge Lucy Koh’s nomination to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Full text of the remarks follows and video is available here.
“I would like to add my words of support for Lucy Koh to serve as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals. She has been a highly respected member of the federal judiciary and she served California well throughout her career.
I recommended Judge Koh when she was first nominated to the 9th Circuit by President Obama in 2016, and I am pleased that President Biden chose her as one of his first nominees to the appellate court.
She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1990 and her law degree from Harvard Law in 1993. And she has served as a legal fellow on this committee’s Immigration Subcommittee and then served for several years at the Justice Department.
In 1997, Judge Koh moved to California to serve as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District.
Among her achievements while at Justice, Judge Koh received an award from the FBI for ‘Demonstrated Excellence in Prosecuting a Major Fraud Case.’
After her time with Justice, Judge Koh spent nearly a decade in private practice in Palo Alto. She became a distinguished intellectual property lawyer working on patent, trade secrets and commercial civil litigation.
She was appointed by a Republican governor, Governor Schwarzenegger, to serve as a judge of the California Superior Court for Santa Clara County. That is quite a good achievement.
In 2010, the Senate voted unanimously (90-0) to confirm Judge Koh as a federal district court judge for the Northern District of California. She has served on that court for more than a decade.
She issued more than 3,000 written opinions. And her reversal rate is very low – it is 1.3 percent on all of those decisions – and it speaks to the care in her research, analysis and jurisprudence.
She was nominated in February [2016] for a seat on the 9th Circuit. Following a hearing of her nomination, Judge Koh received the support of several of our Republican colleagues on this committee, but her nomination for some reason was not considered by the full Senate.
In the intervening five years, Judge Koh has gained additional experience and built a significant record as a federal judge, and I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will again support her nomination to the 9th [Circuit].
She has excelled in every position she has had. She has an impeccable track record as a prosecutor, in private practice and as both a state and a federal judge, Judge Koh would be an excellent addition to the 9th Circuit.
So I am pleased to once again be able to say a few words and introduce her to the committee, and I thank the chair for holding this hearing today.”
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