President Obama will soon announce his pick to replace outgoing U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. KoreAm makes its case for State Department Legal Adviser Harold Koh.
1. Longevity:A younger justice can stay on the court for 20 to 30 years. Koh is 55.
2. Empathy: Obama has expressed he wants someone who will protect the vulnerable and marginalized. Koh, a former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, told KoreAm earlier this year: “I spent time as a child in a wheelchair [due to polio], so when I see someone who’s disabled,
I tend to empathize with their point of view.”
3. Interpersonal Skills: An important requirement is the ability to work with, and even persuade, justices who hold different opinions. Koh has served in the Reagan, Clinton and Obama adminstrations. Despite his progressive views, conservatives respect him: Former Solicitor General Theodore Olsen, the top GOP attorney in the Bush administration, wrote that Koh was a “man of great integrity.”
4. Diversity: The process of selecting a Supreme Court nominee always includes a discussion about diversity, namely race, gender, religious beliefs and life experiences. It would be difficult to deny the historic and sellable narrative of the first Asian American Supreme Court justice, especially during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!
5. Intellectual Firepower: The replacement for Justice Stevens will be expected, fairly or not, to be a liberal lion who can battle wits with the likes of Justices Antonin Scalia and John Roberts. The former dean of Yale Law School fits the bill.
6. Forward-thinking: Although conservatives may bristle at the notion of transnational jurisprudence, Koh’s presence on the nation’s highest court will strengthen the recognition that the U.S. is a part of, and not above, the system of international law.
7. He’s not John Yoo.
Photo via Yale Daily News
For this special issue exploring The Third Generation of Korean Americans, KoreAm asked you to design, illustrate or photograph the cover. Congratulations to the winner, Nathan Nowack, and the two finalists, Christina Mijung Lee and Josephine Park.
Here are some words from Nathan, along with some behind-the-scenes photos.
“As third-generation Korean Americans, my friends’ kids—Ethan and Natalie—are definitely a mixture of Korean culture and American pop culture. After some fun creative makeup, they were ready. People paint American flags on their faces for Independence Day all the time, but this needed to be more dramatic. With their entire faces painted, their images needed no explanation.”
About the artist: Nathan, a Korean adoptee born in Seoul, was raised in Bartlesville, Okla. He received a degree in business administration from Colorado State University, and also studied photography at Santa Monica College. He now works as a wedding photographer based in Southern California. See his work at www.weddingsbynathan.com.
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Featured Event
One of the the biggest Asian cinema events to hit Southern California opens on May 10. The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, features the latest works by established and emerging filmmakers, along with seminars, panel discussions and symposiums on topics relevant to Asian Pacific cinema.
Opening Night features “Shanghai Calling,” directed by Daniel Hsia and starring Korean American Daniel Henney, who plays a Chinese American expat lawyer navigating his way through the mean streets of Shanghai (the picture above also indicates he is a raisin smuggler). But does he take off his shirt? Go watch the movie to find out! read more
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