GOP politican grills AAPI judicial nominee: Beware the "angry" Asian American

Dale Ho has been nominated for a federal judgeship in New York.

OPINION

A Republican U.S. senator thinks an Asian American nominee for a federal judgeship is too "angry" to be a fair judge.

During questioning of highly regarded civil rights attorney Dale Ho for his nomination to the bench, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told Ho:

“Mr. Ho, you’re a smart man. I can tell. But I think you’re an angry man,” Kennedy said during Ho’s Wednesday hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “We don’t need federal judges who are angry. We need federal judges who are fair and can see both points of view.”

Conservatives have targeted Ho, nominated by President Biden for a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, for his past tweets and his work as an ACLU attorney and as an advocate for voting rights. During the confirmation hearings last week by the Senate Judicial Committee, Ho had to undergo a gauntlet of questioning by Republican members of the committee.

Ho, 44, calmly answered Kennedy's attempts to catch the ACLU attorney in a contradiction.  Ho said he regretted the tone of some of his tweets that he sent as director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project during the Trump's reign. He argued two cases against the Trump administration at the Supreme Court, one of which successfully challenged Trump’s plan to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

The aggressive questioning continued but Ho parried the attacks by pointing out the inaccuracy of the senator's alleged quotes.

“You’ve described yourself as a, quote, wild-eyed sort of leftist,” said Kennedy. “Do I have that right?”

“Senator, I think I was referring to a caricature of the way that I think other people may have described me, not how I would describe myself,” Ho said. “I want to assure you that I understand that the role of a judge is to set aside whatever personal views ―.”

“Right,” interrupted Kennedy. “I heard your testimony. ... Did you say, quote, Republicanism is an anti-democratic virus?”

“No senator, I don’t believe I’ve used those words,” replied Ho.

“You’re under oath now,” said Kennedy.

“Yes, Senator, I don’t believe I’ve used those words,” Ho continued. “I do remember saying last year that there was a loss of confidence in our elections that has spread kind of like a virus.”

The back-and-forth  between the Louisiana senator using his southern drawl to appear folksy and the calmness exhibited by Ho until  Kennedy used up his question time.

The grilling by Republican senators on the Senate Justice Committee was countered by the Democrats on the panel who pointed out that past Republican nominees have had their own srong views and questionable "temperament." 

“When we talk about judicial temperament … with regard to now-Justice (Brett) Kavanaugh, there were over 1,000 law professors and deans of law schools who wrote to this committee saying that he did not have the judicial temperament to be on the Supreme Court, and yet, there he sits,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.

In response to the Republican attacks against Ho, a progressive group Demand Justice on Monday launched an ad campaign in support of Biden's nominee. The ad will run on television in Washington, D.C., and will be featured on online social media platforms.

"This ad campaign is an investment in making sure that Americans who care about protecting voting rights know President Biden and Leader Schumer have given Senate Democrats the opportunity to confirm a champion for democracy to the federal bench,” Demand Justice chief counsel Christopher Kang said in a statement.

Prior to the confirmation hearings, Ho's supporters, judges, lawyers, Democrats and Republicans,  issued statements on his behalf in an attempt to stave off the expected partisan attacks. “Mr. Ho is eminently qualified and would make tremendous contributions to the administration of justice in the federal courts, as well as to the communities served by our judicial system,” said  Priya Purandare, executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association.

Advice to future wannabe judges: Don't post mean tweets against members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AAPI perspective, follow me on Twitter, @DioknoEd.

Japanese Americans community in disbelief when senator equates Trump's impeachment hearing to WWII detention

By Louis Chan

ASAM NEWS
Japanese American leaders are reacting with astonishment after U.S. Senator John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, compared the impeachment of Donald Trump to the incarceration of Japanese Americans.

” “It looks to me like, so far, the [Democrats] are going to give about as much due process to the president as the federal government gave our Japanese American friends during World War II,” Kennedy said to the Huff Post.

“The Senator is sorely in need of a history lesson,” said Barbara Takei, whose mother and families were both incarcerated during World War II. Her father fought for the U.S. as a member of the 442nd, 522nd Battalion that liberated Dachau. She has been active in protecting Tule Lake from encroachment by a nearby airport.

“The only similarity between the failure of due process in the incarceration of 120,000 politically-powerless Japanese Americans during WWII and the on going Ukraine investigation, is the abuse of Presidential power," said Takei. 

"Japanese Americans were victimized by racism, fear and failed political leadership. Actions we see repeated by a current-day President who wields power to create new targets for scapegoating and victimization.”

Larry Shinagawa is the former director of the Asian American Studies at the University of Maryland. He’s also the son of a Japanese American soldier who was imprisoned at “concentration camps euphemistically called “assembly centers.”

“It was racism and the lack of due process that took away all our possessions, our homes, and tore apart our communities,” said Shinagawa to AsAmNews about the incarceration camps. “For Senator John Kennedy to compare President Trump’s experience to that of Japanese Americans belittles, demeans, and deflects attention to true victims of racism and intolerance. Shame on Senator Kennedy for likening a privileged White man’s experience to that of Japanese Americans. There is no analogy. He (Trump) will never know completely because even then, he will not be a victim of racism or the breakdown of democracy. “

Gil Asakawa, the author of Being Japanese American, agreed.

“The gross ignorance of so many people today, including lawmakers such as Sen. Kennedy, is an affront to all people of color, to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and especially to the Japanese American community,” he said to AsAmNews. “It should be noted that not a single Japanese American was convicted of espionage or sabotage during the war. We’ll have to see what crimes the current investigation discovers, and whether, decades from now, there will be the need for an official apology. History will be the final judge.”

Sato Kazuya is president of the Cincinnati chapter of the Japanese American Citizen’s League.

“Senator Kennedy seems to be grasping straws at the impeachment process and President Trump’s position grows worse. I am not sure where the Senator Kennedy got the idea to compare the incomparable, but it seems to have popped out of top of his head. Japanese Americans should be upset with the tactic used by the Senator,” Kazuya said.