Eric Tung
President Donald Trump has nominated Eric Tung, a former federal prosecutor, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. If confirmed, Tung would be Trump’s eighth appellate nominee who self-identifies as Asian American or Pacific Islander (AAPI), continuing a trend noted by Bloomberg Law of elevated AAPI representation on the federal bench during Trump’s presidency.
“There’s actually a large pool of ideologically conservative Asian Americans with the sufficient experience and credentials to make plausible appellate court picks,” Tom Lee, a Fordham Law professor, told Bloomberg Law.
Trump appointed more AAPI judges to the appellate courts than any previous Republican president, including James Ho, Neomi Rao, Patrick Bumatay, Amul Thapar, Michael Park, and Kenneth Lee.
“President Trump has always sought only the best judicial candidates—and it turns out that frequently those individuals have Asian-American ancestry,” said Robert Luther III, a former White House lawyer under Trump, in an email to Bloomberg Law.