Atsushi Wallace Tashima

A. Wallace Tashima

Nonpartisan

United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (senior status)

Tenure

2004 - Present

Years in position

20

Prior offices

United States District Court for the Central District of California

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United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit

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Education

Bachelor's

University of California, Los Angeles, 1958

Law

Harvard Law School, 1961

Personal

Birthplace

Santa Maria, Calif.

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Atsushi Wallace Tashima is a federal judge on senior status with the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He joined the court in 1996 after being nominated by President Bill Clinton. Judge Tashima was the first Japanese-American in the history of the United States to be appointed to a United States Court of Appeals.

Early life and education

A native of Santa Maria, California, as a child during World War II, Judge Tashima spent three years with his family in an American internment camp for the Japanese in Poston, Ariz. Tashima graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with his bachelor's degree in 1958, and from Harvard Law School with his LL.M. in 1961.

Military career

Tashima served as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1953 to 1956.

Professional career

• 1977-1980: Private practice, Los Angeles, Calif.
• 1968-1977: Amstar Corporation

• 1972-1977: General attorney and vice president
• 1968-1972: Attorney, Spreckles Sugar Division

• 1961-1967: Deputy attorney general, California

Judicial nominations and appointments

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Nomination Tracker
Nominee Information
Name: A. Wallace Tashima
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
Progress
Confirmed 271 days after nomination.
ANominated: April 6, 1995
AABA Rating: Unanimously Well Qualified
Questionnaire:
AHearing: July 18, 1995
QFRs: (Hover over QFRs to read more)
AReported: July 28, 1995
AConfirmed: January 2, 1996
AVote: Voice vote

Tashima was nominated by President Bill Clinton on April 6, 1995, to a seat on the Ninth Circuit vacated by Arthur Alarcon. The American Bar Association rated Tashima Unanimously Well Qualified for the nomination. Hearings on Tashima's nomination were held before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on July 18, 1995, and his nomination was reported by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on July 28, 1995. Tashima was confirmed on a voice vote of the U.S. Senate on January 2, 1996, and he received his commission on January 4, 1996. Tashima assumed senior status on June 30, 2004. He was succeeded in this position by Judge Milan Smith.

Central District of California

Tashima was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on May 9, 1980, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Central District of California vacated by Warren J. Ferguson. Tashima was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 26, 1980, and he received his commission on June 30, 1980. Tashima resigned from the district court on January 8, 1996, upon his elevation to the Ninth Circuit. Tashima was succeeded in this position by Judge Dean Pregerson.

Awards and associations

• Trial Jurist of the Year, Los Angeles County Bar Association (1995-96)
• Former member, U.S. Judicial Conference Committee on the Rules of Practice and Procedure

Noteworthy cases

Judges go to court over salaries (2009-2013)

See also: United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Peter H. Beer, et al., v. United States, 09-CV-037)

Judge Tashima was one of six judges who sued the government on a claim that Congress violated the Constitution's compensation clause and the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 by failing to honor promised judicial salary increases in five separate years. Earlier reports of the case indicated Judges Thomas Hogan and James Robertson were part of the suit, though they were not named parties in the final opinions and orders.

The Ethics Reform Act requires automatic adjustment of judicial salaries every year based on the Employment Cost Index--which measures inflation of wages and benefits--unless severe economic conditions make the raise inappropriate. The U.S. Congress claimed its withholding of salary adjustments for federal judges were due to a lack of funds.

On October 16, 2009, a federal claims court judge dismissed the lawsuit, citing a precedential decision titled Williams v. United States. It was held in that case that Congress could decide not to grant the cost of living adjustments so long as they did so in the fiscal year prior to that in which the increase would be payable. The judges expected and acknowledged the decision based on the precedent, but said that their hope was to overturn the Williams decision, and planned an immediate appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

On October 5, 2012, the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of the judges, overturning the 11-year old Williams precedent, and finding that Congress' withholding of the cost-of-living salary raises were illegal. The en banc opinion was written by Judge Randall Rader, who quoted Alexander Hamilton, saying, "next to permanency in office, nothing can contribute more to the independence of the judges than a fixed provision for their support." The judges commented that members of their profession should not have to fear that their livelihood will be subject to reprisals from other branches of government, and that as the "weakest of the three branches of government," the judiciary "must...not place its will within the reach of political whim."

The panel decided that "all sitting federal judges are entitled to expect that their real salary will not diminish due to inflation or the action or inaction of the other branches of government," and ordered the Court of Federal Claims to calculate the judges' damages and additional compensation they were entitled to.

Judges Timothy Dyk and William Bryson dissented. They wrote that although the decision seemed just in consideration "to the nation's underpaid Article III judges," the overturning of the Supreme Court's clear interpretation of the law in Williams, as well as a previous refusal to re-hear the issue by the highest court, indicates that the majority overstepped its authority.

In June of 2013, the judge Eric G. Bruggink ruled that each of the judges could recover about $150,000 of back-pay from the government. He also ordered the government to pay interest on the pre-tax amount of the judgment.

• The other plaintiffs were Judges: Peter Beer, Terry Hatter, U. W. Clemon, Laurence Silberman, and Richard Paez.
• Judge Bruggink's opinion on remand and order directing back pay may be found here.

See also

• United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
• United States District Court for the Central District of California

External links

• Judge Tashima's biography from the Federal Judicial Center

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by: Warren Ferguson	Central District of California 1980–1995 Seat #6	Succeeded by: Dean Pregerson
Preceded by: Arthur Lawrence Alarcon	Ninth Circuit 1996–2004	Succeeded by: Milan Smith

California courts

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Federal courts:

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California

State courts:

California Supreme Court • California Courts of Appeal • California Superior Courts

State resources:

Courts in California • California judicial elections • Judicial selection in California