On December 6, 2007, the Philippine American Bar Association sent California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a letter to bring his attention to the lack of judicial appointments of Filipino-Americans to the state's judiciary.
The following is an excerpt from the letter:
Unfortunately, the substantial contributions of the Filipino–American community to this state are not reflected in the makeup of our judiciary. According to our research, there are only nine Superior Court Judges (out of approximately 1,500) and one Appellate Court Justice (out of approximately 105) in California that are of Filipino ancestry. These disproportionately small numbers, which include appointments made during your administration, are even more disturbing when one considers that half of these judges are at or close to retirement age and are projected to retire within the next two years. The geographic distribution of these judges underscores the demographic underrepresentation of Filipinos on the bench: there is only one judge of Filipino ancestry in the Greater Bay Area (San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay); there are currently no judges of Filipino ancestry in San Diego County; and no Filipino–American has ever been appointed to serve in San Mateo County, which encompasses Daly City—the area with the largest concentration of Filipinos outside of the city of Manila in the Philippines. In Los Angeles County, no Filipino–American has been appointed to the bench since 2003.
You can view the letter, in its entirety, here.
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