Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen ( vi, Nguyễn Hồng Ngọc; born May 25, 1965) is an American lawyer who serves as a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

. She previously served as a United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the Central District of California The United States District Court for the Central District of California (in case citations, C.D. Cal.; commonly referred to as the CDCA or CACD) is a Federal trial court that serves over 19 million people in Southern and Central California, ...

from 2009 to 2012 and as a California superior court judge from 2002 to 2009.

Early life and education

Born Hong-Ngoc Thi Nguyen ( vi, Nguyễn Thị Hồng Ngọc) in

Da Lat Da Lat (also written as Dalat, vi, Đà Lạt; ), is the capital of Lâm Đồng Province and the largest city of the Central Highlands region in Vietnam. The city is located above sea level on the Langbian Plateau. Da Lat is one of the mo ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, Nguyen moved to the United States when she was 10, after the fall of the Republic of Vietnam in 1975. The daughter of a South Vietnamese army major who had worked closely with U.S. intelligence officials, Nguyen moved with her family first to an army tent at

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton is the major West Coast base of the United States Marine Corps and is one of the largest Marine Corps bases in the United States. It is on the Southern California coast in San Diego County and is bordered by O ...

, where she lived for several months. They ultimately settled in the La Crescenta-Montrose area of Los Angeles. Her family later opened a doughnut shop in Glendale, California, where Nguyen worked throughout high school and college. Nguyen earned her Artium Baccalaureus degree in English in 1987 from Occidental College.Alt URL
She then earned a Juris Doctor from

UCLA School of Law The UCLA School of Law is one of 12 professional schools at the University of California, Los Angeles. UCLA Law has been consistently ranked by '' U.S. News & World Report'' as one of the top 20 law schools in the United States since the inception ...

in 1991.

Professional career

From 1991 until 1995, Nguyen worked in private law practice, specializing in civil litigation as a litigation associate at the firm Musick, Peeler & Garrett. In particular, she focused on commercial disputes, intellectual property and construction-defect cases. From 1995 until August 2002, Nguyen served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Central District of California. She joined the U.S. Attorney's office in its Public Corruption and Government Fraud section, overseeing

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...

fraud prosecutions. In her final years in the U.S. Attorney's office, Nguyen also held the role of Deputy Chief of the General Crimes section, training new prosecutors in the Central District. In August 2002, Nguyen was appointed by then-California Gov. Gray Davis to be a

Superior Court of Los Angeles County The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Los Angeles County, which includes the city of Los Angeles. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States. The L ...

judge. Nguyen became the first-ever Vietnamese-American woman appointed to the Los Angeles County Superior Court. She had been based in

Alhambra, California Alhambra (, , ; from "Alhambra") is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately eight miles from the Downtown Los Angeles civic center. It was incorporated on July 11 ...

Federal judicial service

District court service

On July 31, 2009, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

nominated Nguyen to a seat on the

, vacated by Judge

Nora Margaret Manella Nora Margaret Manella (born January 22, 1951) is the Presiding Justice of the California Second District Court of Appeal, Division Four and a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of Cal ...

, who resigned in 2006 to join the

California Courts of Appeal The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. state of California. The state is geographically divided along county lines into six appellate districts.

. Senator

Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein ( ; born Dianne Emiel Goldman; June 22, 1933) is an American politician who serves as the senior United States senator from California, a seat she has held since 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, she wa ...

had recommended Nguyen's nomination. On September 23, 2009, Nguyen appeared before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...

, which reported her nomination on October 15, 2009. On December 1, 2009, the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

confirmed Nguyen by a 97–0 vote. She received her commission on December 4, 2009. On May 15, 2012, her service on the District Court terminated due to her elevation to the court of appeals.

Ninth Circuit service

On September 22, 2011, President Obama nominated Nguyen to the

. The Senate confirmed Nguyen by a 91–3 vote on May 7, 2012. She received her commission on May 14, 2012. She is the first Asian-American female to serve as a federal appellate judge. She is also the first Vietnamese-American federal judge, and the first Asian-Pacific American female federal judge in California. In 2012, she was speculated to be a candidate for the Supreme Court. In February 2016, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' identified her as a potential nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia.

Notable cases

On September 3, 2015, Nguyen granted relief to Edin Avendano-Hernandez, a Transgender Mexican, because she showed adequate proof that she would likely face torture if deported back to Mexico. Nguyen was joined by Harry Pregerson and Barrington D. Parker, Jr. On December 29, 2017, Nguyen partially dissented when

Stephen Reinhardt Stephen Roy Reinhardt (born Stephen Roy Shapiro; March 27, 1931 – March 29, 2018) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, with chambers in Los Angeles, California. He was the last federal ...

and Harry Pregerson blocked an execution due to the mental health of the criminal defendant. On June 6, 2019, Nguyen ruled against Hyundai and Kia, ruling that they lied about their fuel economy and did not show that the California law would not apply.http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2019/06/06/15-56014.pdf

Personal life

Nguyen's husband, Pio S. Kim, was also a federal prosecutor.

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Jacqueline 1965 births 21st-century American judges Academics of Vietnamese descent American people of Vietnamese descent American jurists of Asian descent Assistant United States Attorneys California state court judges Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judges of the United States District Court for the Central District of California Living people Occidental College alumni People from La Crescenta-Montrose, California United States court of appeals judges appointed by Barack Obama United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama UCLA School of Law alumni 21st-century American women judges