President Barack Obama is appointing women and minorities to federal judgeships at an unprecedented rate, and nowhere is the evidence more clear than in the Golden State.
If she can make it through a logjam of judicial nominees in the U.S. Senate, Kimberly Mueller will make history, becoming the first woman to win a U.S. District Court judgeship in Sacramento.
She's among many firsts: Last week, Lucy Koh in California's Northern District was confirmed as the nation's first Korean American federal District Court judge; and in December Dolly Gee was confirmed in the state's Central District as the first Chinese American federal District Court judge in the country.