Vince Girdhari Chhabria Nominated for U.S. District Court
Late last month, President Obama nominated Indian-American Vince Girdhari Chhabria to serve on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. If confirmed by the Senate, Chhabria will be the first South Asian Article III judge in California, and the fourth South Asian Article III judge in the nation.
The nomination for Chhabria, who is the deputy city attorney for government litigation and co-chief of appellate litigation at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, has been greeted with enthusiasm among advocates and congressional members.
“Mr. Chhabria is extremely well-qualified and possesses the temperament and talent that will make him an excellent judge. I … urge my Senate colleagues to move swiftly on Mr. Chhabria’s confirmation,” said Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chair and Congresswoman Judy Chu.
Chhabria received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his law degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.
Oak Creek Sikh Shooting One Year Later
This month commemorates the one-year anniversary of the Oak Creek, Wis. shooting of six worshippers at a Sikh temple.
A year later, Sikh, interfaith and other allied groups can see the product of their communities working together in response to the shooting. The U.S. government will now begin tracking hate crimes against Sikhs and other targeted religions. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution in remembrance of the shooting’s anniversary.
Harnoor Singh and Jagjot Kaur, both 15, are Sikh-American teens at a summer camp in Maryland who both expressed they have pride in their religion and identities. They shared with The Huffington Post that they have found ways to combat the ignorant bullying they encounter with kids who hurl hostile misconceptions at them about Sikh Americans.
“If you don’t tell them right there that, ‘No, I’m actually not a Muslim, I’m a Sikh. This is what we believe in. This is who we are. And we are in no way affiliated with any terrorist group,’ that ignorance keeps spreading and eventually, you have every Sikh kid made fun of,” said Singh.
One bully at a time.
