[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5362]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           REMEMBERING LAURA
                               CHA-YU LIU

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it is with a heavy heart that I share the 
news that Judge Laura Cha-Yu Liu passed away last week. A longtime 
resident of Chicago, Judge Liu was only 49 years old. Although her time 
with us was far too short, her accomplishments were many. Judge Liu 
broke barriers. She was the first Chinese American woman to become 
judge in Illinois, the first Chinese American elected to public office 
in Cook County. And in 2014, Judge Liu became the first Asian American 
to serve on the Illinois appellate court.
  Her story is the story of the American dream. Born in Carbondale, IL, 
her parents were immigrants fleeing a dire political situation and the 
terrors of war. They came to this country as foreign exchange students 
in the hopes of providing a better life for their children. Liu's first 
language was Mandarin, and she started school speaking very little 
English. She overcame the language barrier and graduated as her high 
school's valedictorian. In 1987, she received a bachelor's degree from 
Youngstown State University and a law degree from the University of 
Cincinnati in 1991.
  As the daughter of immigrants, Judge Liu took extraordinary pride in 
her work on the Illinois Supreme Court's Access to Justice program, 
aimed at making the system more accessible to immigrants and non-
English speakers. She helped draft requirements that courts provide 
qualified interpreters for parties and witnesses. Throughout her 
career, Judge Liu was a staunch defender of individuals' rights, 
especially the most vulnerable in our community. It wasn't uncommon for 
Judge Liu to delay court proceedings when people struggled to 
understand, saying: ``We're going to wait for an interpreter.'' And no 
one did more to ensure that language barriers would not stand in the 
way of justice for all at Daley Center.
  Five years ago, Judge Liu was diagnosed with breast cancer, but that 
didn't slow her down. She continued working, running for election in 
2012 and, 2 years later, winning her appointment to the appellate 
court. She never complained; she just kept going. During chemotherapy, 
she said, ``I put on my wig, put on my eyebrows, lots of blush, happy 
face, get out of bed and went to work.'' That is courage.
  Judge Liu was the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Here are 
just a few: the Asian Pacific American Community Service Award; the 
Chinese American Bar Association of Greater Chicago's Sandra Otaka 
Distinguished Judicial Service Award; Illinois' Judges Foundation's 
``the Leader Who Shares Experience Leaves a Legacy of Success'' Award; 
Asian American Bar Association's 2014 Vanguard Award for her work to 
make ``the law and legal profession more accessible to and reflective 
of the community at large''; Illinois Secretary of State's 
Distinguished Leadership Award--and the honors go on and on. Judge Liu 
was also a member of the Illinois Judges Association, Chicago Bar 
Association, Illinois State Bar Association, Asian American Bar 
Association of Greater Chicago, and Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of 
Chicago.
  She was an extraordinarily accomplished professional, but Judge Liu's 
proudest accomplishment was being a mother to her 7-year-old daughter, 
Sophie, and a wife to the love of her life, Michael Kasper. Despite her 
busy schedule, she always put family first. She made time to teach 
Sophie Mandarin and the piano. She even took Sophie to Paris, in the 
midst of dealing with an aggressive chemotherapy regimen. But she 
simply said, ``I'll sleep it off on the plane.'' And she did. She also 
could frequently be found on the sidelines of Sophie's soccer matches 
cheering her on.
  Judge Liu was a force of nature. She authored nearly 150 judicial 
opinions in her 2 years on the Illinois appellate court. In her final 
days, while working from home, Judge Liu filed her final opinion before 
she passed. What commitment and what an inspiration. To the very end, 
Judge Liu understood that these issues and her opinions affected 
people's lives, and cancer wasn't going to keep her from doing her job.
  She once said, ``I wanted to fit in more than I wanted to be a 
trailblazer. I didn't want to be an Asian-American on the rise.'' Well, 
she didn't get that wish. In fact, she accomplished just the opposite. 
Her career was groundbreaking and she became a role model for countless 
Chinese American kids--and an inspiration to the rest of us--especially 
her friends and family. Judge Liu will be sorely missed.

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