[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 185 (Thursday, October 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7146-S7147]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Confirmation of Tana Lin

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I rise today to commend the confirmation 
of Tana Lin--a trailblazing civil rights lawyer and former public 
defender--to serve as U.S. District Court judge for the Western 
District of Washington in the Seattle courthouse.
  Ms. Lin has led a tremendous career fighting for civil and human 
rights, and I am very proud to have recommended her to President Biden.
  There are many reasons to be excited about Tana Lin's confirmation. 
One of them that is extremely important to me is she will be the first-
ever public defender serving as U.S. District Court judge in Washington 
State, and that really matters.

[[Page S7147]]

  It matters when we put a former public defender and civil rights 
lawyer on the Federal bench. It matters quite a bit, I think, when a 
Federal judge has represented clients who couldn't afford to hire their 
own lawyer. It matters that Ms. Lin has represented Washington State 
farmworkers dealing with wage theft. It matters that Ms. Lin stood up 
for refugees and immigrants against unconstitutional Executive actions, 
and that she had successfully challenged discriminatory hiring 
practices, and has a long career of standing shoulder to shoulder with 
working people at every turn in her career.
  Ms. Lin's legal qualifications are excellent. She graduated from 
Cornell University and New York University School of Law, working 
multiple jobs during both college and law school. She began her career 
as a public defender in the District of Columbia. She went on to work 
at the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, and later 
the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She spent 
multiple years at the Michigan Poverty Law Program until she finally 
moved to Seattle.
  In Washington State, Ms. Lin currently serves as president of the 
Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union, and also 
works in private practice where she fights for the rights of employees 
and consumers.
  She is deeply involved in our local community, mentoring the next 
generation of lawyers and dedicating her time to a range of pro bono 
projects in the region.
  Ms. Lin's legal experience is unquestionable, but I also believe it 
is important that judges who sit on our Federal bench are reflective of 
the communities that they serve.
  Our State is home to more than 1 million immigrants and nearly 1 
million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Ms. Lin, who 
emigrated here with her family from Taiwan at the age of 3, will 
proudly serve as Washington State's first-ever Asian-American judge to 
sit on the Federal bench. That is a big deal.
  Ms. Lin will bring integrity, independence, and compassion to the 
Seattle courthouse. Americans deserve a justice system that will uphold 
the rights of everyone, not just the wealthy and well-connected. Let's 
build a more fair court system and let's do that by appointing more 
public defenders and more civil rights lawyers like Ms. Lin as Federal 
judges.