Asian Law Students Association

For new students interested in joining ALSA, representatives from our organization will be at the Student Organization Fair at 10 am on Friday, August 20.

Members, both old and new, can receive information about ALSA’s upcoming programs at the First General Interest Meeting on Thursday, August 26, at 1 pm.

For more information about Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, go here: http://asianpacificheritage.gov/ and http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/feature/asia/.

ALSA and the Multicultural Law Students Association are among the organizations hosting a screening of the film “9500 Liberty,” an award-winning documentary on the 2007 immigration debate in Prince William County, Virginia. The film’s directors, Annabel Park and Eric Byler, will be on hand. Free and all are welcome. The screening will be on campus at Andrews Hall 101 on Tuesday, April 6 from 7-9 pm.

From Fill in Our Future:

For our members:

We are returning to a traditional board structure for the 2010-2011 school year and will need to fill the following offices: President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary. If you are interested in running for any of these positions, please send a statement of interest/platform to williammaryalsa|at|gmail.com by Sunday, March 28, 2010 at 5 pm. Your platforms will be sent out via email, and we’ll probably conduct the elections via email as well, unless anyone has any objections (many of the dates during lunch are booked up for the next couple of weeks).

Just a reminder that ALSA & MLSA are hosting Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) on February 25th at 6 pm. LiNK will be screening a National Geographic documentary entitled “Inside North Korea” made by Lisa Ling (field correspondent for Oprah Winfrey and sister of Laura Ling, one of the two American journalists recently detained in North Korea).

In the meantime, you may want to support LiNK’s efforts to secure funding for its Liberty House program from the Pepsi Refresh Project. All you have to do is vote once a day – the top two vote getters will receive $250,000. Follow this link for more information: http://www.refresheverything.com/link

The Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Virginia (APABA-VA) is interested in establishing a presence with ALSA. One of the ways they would like to do is through a mentorship program between interested ALSA members and practicing attorneys who are members of APABA-VA. If you are interested in receiving a mentor, please email williammaryalsa|at|gmail.com with your name, email address, and practice area of interest, and we’ll see what we can set up.

Refugee and Immigration Services needs volunteers to help move furniture and household items into an empty apartment for a refugee or immigrant who is just arriving to the U.S. (e.g., arranging furniture, filling their kitchen cupboards, etc.). This will take 2-3 hours on any given day of the week; we will have one week’s notice of the moving day.

If you are interested in being on call for this volunteer activity, i.e. you want to be told of future moving dates so you can check your schedule for availability, then please contact williammaryalsa|at|gmail.com. This does NOT commit you to the activity. It should be a lot of fun – both as an opportunity to bond with fellow ALSA members and as an opportunity to create a lasting first impression on the home of a refugee or immigrant in need.

Reposted from angryasianman.com:

Last August, President Barack Obama nominated Magistrate Judge Edward Chen to the federal court. Nominated by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, Judge Chen received extremely positive support from a diverse group of individuals and organizations, including “Unanimously Well Qualified” rating by the American Bar Association. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Judge Chen’s nomination in October 2009.

Without explanation, Judge Chen’s nomination was returned to the White House in late December. As was anticipated, President Obama renominated Judge Chen for the federal court on January 20. Now, your help is needed to communicate to the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, that Judge Chen’s nomination deserves to be presented to the full Senate for a vote. You can sign the following letter in support of Judge Chen:

To the Honorable Harry Reid, United States Senator and Majority Leader:

I’m writing to support Judge Edward Chen’s nomination as a federal district court judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and request that his nomination be considered for a fair up-or-down vote by the full Senate.

For more than eight years, Judge Chen has demonstrated that he has made the transition from zealous advocate to balanced, fair, and evenhanded jurist. As a U.S. magistrate judge, he has over 300 published opinions on a range of subjects, having only been overturned twice by the Court of Appeals. Judge Chen was also rated “Unanimously Well Qualified” by the American Bar Association — a thorough process that examined his record as a judge and attorney.

Judge Chen has mainstream values and attacks against his character are unfair, especially given his excellent record as a judge.

The Senate should move Judge Chen’s nomination without any further delay. He is entitled to a full floor vote by the Senate.

Thank you for your consideration,

Judge Chen’s nomination deserves a straight up-or-down vote in the Senate. You can help make that happen by signing the short online form, and your letter will be sent to Majority Leader Reid. For more information, visit FairJudges.net, a website of the Asian Pacific Bar of California.