“ON THE COURT OF APPEALS, WHERE YOU ARE MAKING DECISIONS IN GROUPS OF THREE, THERE HAS TO BE COOPERATION AND SOMETIMES EVEN COMPROMISE. WE ARE MORE LIKELY TO REACH THE RIGHT RESULT WHEN WE ARE GETTING INPUT FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES.”
24
if the job is subject to public appraisal. “For many, many years, I was the only Asian American federal judge outside of California and Hawaii. I did not think of myself as the Asian American judge. It was like Jeremy Lin now,” says Chin, referencing the New York Knicks point guard who currently is the only Asian American player in the NBA. “Like it or not, if Jeremy Lin does well, if he doesn’t do well, it will have some symbolic eff ect beyond him. T e same kind of dynamic existed with me. While I did not consciously worry about it, I have always tried to do the best I can.” T e Obama administration has been
widely recognized for its commitment to improving diversity on the bench. Chin’s appointment to the Second Circuit elimi- nated the “zero” in the number of Asian Americans on active status in the federal appellate courts in the country. “A Chinese defendant who appears in
front of me should not think that he is going to get a break because we are both Asian American. On the other hand, he may take some comfort in the fact that someone like me, with my background, is sitting on the bench in front of him.” Yet diversity’s value is more substantive
than that. “It’s more than just seeing a face of a
diff erent color up there. I think the adminis- tration of justice is better if there are judges with diff erent experiences and I’m just not talking about race,” Chin says, noting that judges who had been trial judges or academ- ics or partners in law fi rms would bring diff erent perspectives to the appellate court. “On the Court of Appeals, where you are making decisions in groups of three, there has to be cooperation and sometimes even compromise. We are more likely to reach the right result when we are getting input from diff erent perspectives.” D&B
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® MARCH/APRIL 2012
MCCA.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52