Women Hit Judicial Confirmation Milestone Faster Under Biden (2)

The Senate has now confirmed 100 women to the federal bench under Joe Biden, a pace that’s said to be faster than other recent presidents achieved in their full first terms.

On Tuesday, Kenly Kiya Kato was confirmed, 51-46, to the US district court based in Los Angeles and Julia Kobick, 52-46, to the District of Massachusetts.

Kato received no Republican support while Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska backed Kobick. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) voted no on Kobick. He’s in a tough reelection fight in a conservative state.

Two-thirds of the 150 judicial confirmations under Biden since spring 2021 are women, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in floor remarks prior to the latest votes.

Schumer also noted that Biden’s record on female judicial appointments outpaces other recent presidents in their first four years in office.

“These nominees are all historic taken together, and many are historic in their own right,” Schumer said in nodding to Biden’s premium on demographic and professional diversity in judicial appointments.

In a statement, Biden acknowledged the twin milestones of 150 confirmations and two thirds of them being women.

“All of these men and women are highly qualified, faithful to the rule of law, and dedicated to the Constitution,” Biden said. “They come from professional backgrounds that have for far too long been underrepresented on the bench.”

Family Influence

Kato, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, is the daughter of Japanese-American parents who were interned during World War II.

“Having those stories of my family’s first-hand experiences, it was impressed upon me from a very young age the critical importance of securing constitutional rights for everyone,” Kato said during her February 2022 confirmation hearing. “It is truly an honor to work each and every day to ensure that everyone’s constitutional rights are protected.”

Kato worked as a federal public defender in the Central District of California, and as a solo practitioner in Palm Springs before becoming a magistrate judge in 2014 in the court where she’ll sit as a trial judge.

“Lawyers who have worked with her believe she reaches just decisions even if they don’t agree with them,” said Krystal Lyons, senior legal counsel at Stream Kim Hicks Wrage & Alfaro P.C.

The Harvard law graduate clerked for the late Judge Robert Takasugi in the Central District of California.

Kato is filling the seat left vacant by Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell, who died in October 2017.

Kobick, also a Harvard law graduate with clerking stintsat the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has served as a deputy solicitor in the Massachusetts attorney general’s office.

She’ll fill the seat vacated by Reagan appointee William Young, who’s taken senior status, a form of semi-retirement.