On Wednesday, Monroe County Court Judge Meredith Vacca made history as the first woman of color and the first Asian American to be appointed as a federal judge in western New York.
The Senate confirmed Vacca, a 43-year-old Korean American Democrat, as the first woman of color to serve in the western New York federal court district. It spans 17 counties from the Pennsylvania border to the hubs of Rochester and Buffalo.
The confirmation, passed with a vote of 50 to 41, also saw some support from Republican senators.
In support of Vacca’s nomination, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer said in a statement “As a Korean American who was adopted at six months old and comes from a family of attorneys, she has a unique perspective and deep commitment to equal justice for all.”
Vacca graduated from Colgate University and SUNY Buffalo Law School, then served as a prosecutor in the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office from 2007 until her election to county court in 2020. During this time, she handled serious cases of child abuse and domestic violence.
Although this will be her first time practicing in federal court, “The Senate confirmed Meredith Vacca on a 50-41 vote that was not surprising, because she was a very experienced, mainstream nominee, who had a relatively smooth hearing and a bipartisan Judiciary Committee vote,” said Carl Tobias, a federal judicial nominations expert.
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