Conservative jurist James Ho has been confirmed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, reports the Dallas News.
His confirmation gives President Trump the most circuit picks confirmed in the first year in office.
According to the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Ho has received the President’s Award from NAPABA, the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Asian Pacific American Leadership from the Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership, the Justice David Wellington Chew Award from the Asian Pacific Interest Section of the State Bar of Texas, the Community Leader Award from the Dallas Asian American Bar Association, the Award for Outstanding Contributions in Law from the Greater Dallas Asian American Chamber of Commerce, and the Outstanding Achievement Award from the SMU Asian Pacific American Law Students Association.
“James Ho is nationally recognized for his legal acumen and we congratulate him on his historic confirmation,” said Pankit J. Doshi, president of the NAPABA. ” It is fitting that he continues to break barriers on behalf of the community as the first Asian Pacific American to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.”
He is the first Asian Pacific American Ho to serve on the Fifth Circuit and the sixth active Asian Pacific American federal appellate judge.
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He has, however, been criticized for his stances on voting rights, affirmative action and LGBTQ rights.
“Mr. Ho’s fierce opposition to equal opportunity and affirmative action led him to become one of the nation’s foremost critics of the appointment of Bill Lann Lee to serve as acting head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the late 1990s,” wrote the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in a letter opposing the nomination. “Mr. Ho wrote that President Clinton’s “nominee to head the civil rights division – whose job would be to enforce all civil rights law – was loyal to the cause of racial preferences. That agenda cost Mr. Lee Senate confirmation, but Mr. Clinton appointed him anyway.” Mr. Ho also made the alarming proposal that – as a result of Mr. Lee’s appointment – the Senate should retaliate by defunding the Civil Rights Division and refusing to confirm all other nominees.”
The People for American Way also opposed the nomination writing “Ho is hostile toward the idea that the American people, through their elected representatives, can impose limits on money in politics, a problem that threatens the foundation of our democracy. His solution to the enormous influence wielded by a small percentage of Americans is not to curtail their ability to buy elections, but to enhance it. He has written that our nation should abandon efforts to limit money in politics and instead, “abolish all restrictions on campaign finance.” His “cure” is to let the disease run rampant.”
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