President Joe Biden has selected every one of the seven active judges in the Western District of Washington, the only court where he’s had a chance to do so (article available here). All seven are women, people of color, or both.
Tana Lin and John Chun are the court’s first Asian American judges, Lauren King is the first Native American judge on the Seattle court, and Jamal Whitehead is one of the few in the country openly serving with a disability. The court is also now one of a handful that are majority female, with four seats filled by women.
The new composition represents a marked shift for the court, which never had a woman of color before the Biden administration.
The Trump administration rejected candidates recommended by the nonpartisan selection committee used by Washington state’s two Democratic senators. By 2020, the court had just two active judges, who both took senior status after Biden took office, giving the president the entire active bench to fill.
Biden appointed three judges in his first year, a fourth in his second, and three more in the first half of this year.
The new judges’ resumes are similarly varied, in a departure from the former prosecutors and corporate lawyers who held the roles before them. The group includes a former immigration lawyer, tribal court judge and a labor attorney, along with private practice lawyers with extensive experience in civil rights cases and other pro bono work.
They also represent some of the country’s youngest federal judges. Lin is in her late 50s, and the youngest, Tiffany Cartwright is still in her 30s.