Chen, Butler and Schroeder: Three Judicial Nominees Up In Senate
John Park /
At its Executive Business Meeting on February 4, 2010, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent the nominations of Edward Chen, Louis Butler, Mary Smith, and Christopher Schroeder to the floor for consideration by the Senate. President Obama resubmitted those nominations in January after the Senate adjourned in December without acting on them.
Chen, who has been nominated for a judgeship in the Northern District of California, was sent forward on a party line 12-7 vote. After three years in private practice, he worked as a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union from 1985 to 2001, when he became a federal magistrate judge. While with the ACLU, Chen participated in unsuccessful challenges to an Arizona referendum calling for the State’s official business to be conducted in English, a California referendum that eliminated so-called “bilingual education” and implemented other measures for teaching English to nonnative students, and a California ban on racial preferences in state education, employment, and contracting.