LA Times is reporting "President Obama has named four new federal judge nominees for California, three of them Asian Americans, who have long been underrepresented on the federal bench." According to the LA TImes, the nominees include: Dolly Gee, managing partner of the Los Angeles law firm Schwartz, Steinsapir, Dohrmann & Sommers LLP, 50, a labor and employment litigator and past president of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers Association. Jacquelyn H. Nguyen, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge, 44, a UCLA law graduate, spent several months at a Camp Pendleton refugee camp when she was a child after her family was airlifted out of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. If confirmed, she would be the nation’s first Vietnamese district judge. Edward M. Chen, U.S. Magistrate Judge, 56, worked as a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union before his judicial appointment. If confirmed, he would be the only Asian American on the Northern District bench, which also lacks Latino representation among its 14 judges. Richard G. Seeborg, U.S. Magistrate Judge, 52, served as an assistant U.S. attorney in San Jose and worked at the Morrison & Foerster law firm in Palo Alto and San Francisco before he was named a magistrate judge. The United States district courts are the trial courts of the federal court system. Within limits set by Congress and the Constitution, the district courts have jurisdiction to hear nearly all categories of federal cases, including both civil and criminal matters. You can read more about district courts on the U.S. District Courts website.