Brown made progress, but there's still work to do

I sincerely appreciate the illuminating focus on increasing diversity on the bench in the March 2 article, "Brown's judge picks made bench more diverse." I am the president of the California Asian Pacific American Bar Association (Cal-APABA), which represents the interests of the state's 14,000-plus Asian-American and Pacific Islander (API) attorneys. Cal-APABA and other coalitions of API bar associations across the state pay close attention to this important issue. I suggest, however, that the title of the online version of the article -- "As his tenure ends, Brown's judicial picks have small impact on bench diversity" -- is not consonant with the progress made by this governor or his judicial appointments advisor Joshua Groban.

The data shows that during his term, from 2011 through 2017, nearly 40 percent of Gov. Jerry Brown's appointees identified themselves as persons of color. Last year, over 50 percent of appointees were women. We should give credit where credit is due, and this governor has shown a commitment to appoint well qualified and diverse judges.

The lack of representation has a long history, and the blame cannot fall on the shoulders of just one governor. Both California's bench and bar have a long, sad history of discriminating against APIs. The California Supreme Court in 1854 in People v. Hall, denied the right of Chinese Americans to testify against white Americans. In 1911, Sei Fujii graduated from the University of Southern California Law School, but was denied a law license because of his Asian ethnicity. A 2017 study commissioned by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) and Yale Law School showed that while APIs have penetrated virtually every sector of the legal profession, they continue to be significantly underrepresented in the leadership ranks of law firms, government, and academia.

The numbers show that this governor has made significant progress. But there is a long way to go. While well represented in the California Supreme Court, there are only two API justices of the Courts of Appeal out of the 93 appellate justices. There has been no API justice in the 1st District, representing San Francisco and the Bay Area, since 1998. There are many, many highly qualified API candidates. We appreciate the governor's efforts to date. And in the twilight of his term, we expect the governor to cement his legacy, by appointing well-qualified APIs to the trial bench and the Courts of Appeal.