NCJW supports Dale Ho. Here’s why:
Dale Ho, currently the Director of the Voting Rights Project at the ACLU, has dedicated his career to making sure our democracy remains strong, protecting our freedom to vote, and safeguarding the rights of everyone. He began his legal career with a prestigious Fried Frank Fellowship, spending two years with the international law firm of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and two years with the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc (LDF). Ho received his JD from Yale Law School and his BA from Princeton University. If confirmed, Dale Ho would be only the third Asian American judge ever to serve on the Southern District for New York and only the sixth Asian American judge ever to serve on any of New York’s federal district courts. He would also be the second Asian American judge seated on the nation’s largest and busiest federal district court.
Dale Ho’s stance on important issues:
Democracy:
In two cases before the US Supreme Court, Ho argued and won a challenge to the Trump administration’s attempts to include a citizenship question in the 2020 Census in Department of Commerce v. New York. In Trump v. New York, he argued a challenge to the Trump administration’s decision to exclude undocumented immigrants from the population count used to apportion the House of Representatives. Additionally, Ho was one of the first lawyers to challenge prison-based gerrymandering, which counts persons for Census purposes as residents of where they are incarcerated as opposed to where they last resided.
LGBTQ+ Rights:
While working for LDF, Ho represented an amicus group in litigation over California’s ban on same-sex marriage (Proposition 8) in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, helping to overturn the ban.
Voting Rights:
Ho has devoted much of his career to protecting the right to vote for communities of color. He challenged North Carolina’s voter suppression law (League of Women Voters v. North Carolina) which reduced early voting, ended same-day registration, and prohibited “out-of-precinct” voting. Ho litigated against Wisconsin’s photo ID requirement for voters in Frank v. Walker, successfully obtaining a district court injunction against the law, which was stayed by the Seventh Circuit. In Fish v. Kobach, Ho successfully challenged a Kansas law that required people registering to vote to show a birth certificate or passport. And, at LDF, he challenged Louisiana’s failure to provide public assistance recipients the opportunity to vote as required by the National Voter Registration Act. He has testified on election law issues before Congress and in various state legislatures, and currently supervises the ACLU’s voting rights litigation.
Dale Ho’s experience and education:
Experience:
After graduating from law school, Ho clerked for Judge Robert S. Smith on the New York Court of Appeals and for Judge Barbara Jones on the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Ho then joined the firm of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobsen and worked at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. In 2013, Ho joined the American Civil Liberties Union, where he currently serves as Director of the Voting Rights project. He has argued and litigated in multiple appellate and district courts around the country, and has argued two cases before the US Supreme Court. Ho is currently an adjunct clinical professor of law at NYU School of Law and Brooklyn Law School.
Education and Recognitions:
Ho received his JD from Yale Law School and his BA from Princeton University, summa cum laude. In 2020, he received the Asian Law Alliance Legal Impact Award, in 2019, he received the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) President’s Award, in 2018, he was named to the New York City Charter Revision Commission, and in 2017, he was called one of the best Asian American Lawyers under 40 by the National Asian Pacific American Bar.