AABA Celebrates Appointments to San Francisco Superior Court

September 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 3, 2009 (SAN FRANCISCO, CA) - The Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area (AABA) applauds Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's September 1 appointments of Andrew Y.S. Cheng and Samuel K. Feng to judgeships in the San Francisco County Superior Court. Messrs. Cheng and Feng join Honorable Bruce E. Chan, who was appointed to the same court earlier this year. In 2009 to date, Governor Schwarzenegger has appointed three Asian Pacific American (APA) judges in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Mr. Cheng joins the bench from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, where he served as the Deputy Chief of the Civil Division, while Mr. Feng joins from his practice at his law firm Feng & Lee. Honorable Bruce Chan served as a commissioner for San Francisco Superior Court before his appointment as judge. All three have a history of working in and with their communities and were endorsed by AABA and many other organizations prior to their appointments.

"These are very talented and committed individuals who are very deserving of their appointments," AABA President Garner Weng noted, "but there is much more work to be done."

AABA Past President Edwin Prather concurred in saying, "We should be proud of these AABA members and the AABA-led community efforts that contributed to these appointments. Overall though, the state-court judiciary has a long way to go to become representative of our diverse region and state."

By 2000 Census figures, APAs constitute about 33 percent of the population of San Francisco. With these recent appointments, the percentage of APAs on the San Francisco bench likely reaches about 18 percent. The aggregate diversity of the California judiciary remains significantly below that of the state's population. Of the governor's appointments to the bench through the end of 2008, 6.5% have been Asian, according to statistics released by his office.

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