NAPABA Advocacy Update

NAPABA Advocacy Update

July 2, 2025

Just over a month ago, NAPABA held its annual Lobby Day in Washington, DC. We convened our members in the Nation’s capital to support the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) community, advance a fair and humane immigration system, defend the rule of law and the legal profession, and advance democracy and civil rights. With over 60 congressional meetings and over 20 states represented, NAPABA demonstrated its commitment to change the status quo for our community.

Since then, and since NAPABA’s last update to you, we have been tracking developments that impact our organization, our mission, our legal community, and the broader AANHPI community. Please find some of these updates below


I. NAPABA-Led Coalition Continues to Defend Birthright Citizenship

After our filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in April 2025, NAPABA continued to lead a coalition of nearly 50 of its affiliates and national associates from across the country to defend birthright citizenship. Besides our amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit, which is available here, NAPABA filed substantially similar amicus briefs defending birthright citizenship in matters pending in the First Circuit and the Fourth Circuit. Those briefs can be viewed here and here.

Our brief explains the critical historical context behind United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898). The case was decided during an era of intense anti-Chinese sentiment, immigration restrictions, widespread violence, and mass expulsions. In Wong Kim Ark, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that birthright citizenship is automatically conferred to children born on American soil, even to those whose parents were from the most disfavored migrant group in the country at the time. NAPABA’s amicus brief underscores the importance of understanding Asian American legal history as a critical part of American history. Wong Kim Ark and other cases involving Asian American litigants in the late 19th century are foundational precedents for today’s immigration and civil rights law.  

Media outlets such as Law360 and the National Law Journal have covered NAPABA’s legal arguments.

On Friday, June 27, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the preliminary injunctions that can be available to pause the executive order limiting birthright citizenship. The Court did not address the constitutionality of the executive order. Thus, litigation will continue as does NAPABA’s advocacy. The question of a child’s citizenship in the United States ought not to be dependent on the stature or circumstances of their parents. Nor should it turn on whether a child is born in one state versus another. For the guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment to be vindicated, birthright citizenship must apply to all children across the United States.  


II. NAPABA Condemns Political Violence and Hate

In recent weeks, we have witnessed incidents of hate and political violence that are antithetical to the values of our community and our country. In the early morning hours of June 14, 2025, an armed perpetrator shot two Minnesota state legislators and their respective spouses in the suburbs outside of Minneapolis in an “act of targeted political violence,” according to the Governor of Minnesota. State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, died. State Senator John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, survived and sustained injuries from the attack.

Weeks earlier, on May 21, 2025, a deadly shooting in Washington, DC, targeted Israeli Embassy diplomats.  And on June 1, 2025, eight people in Boulder, Colorado, were injured when a perpetrator threw incendiary devices into a crowd during a demonstration intended to remember hostages in the Middle East. One of those injured died from her wounds.

On top of these horrific acts, some elected leaders have sought divisiveness rather than inclusion. In a social media post, a member of Congress expressed that it was “deeply troubling” that a Sikh faith leader, Giani Surinder Singh, led a prayer on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. The member, who had misidentified Giani Surinder Singh as Muslim, declared that Singh “should never have been allowed” to lead a prayer in Congress.

In the race for New York City’s mayor, some members of Congress have lodged Islamophobic comments against Zohran Mamdani, the winner of the primary election. One member of Congress posted an offensive cartoon of Mamdani, referred to Mamdani with a slur, and called on the Attorney General to institute denaturalization proceedings and remove him from the United States. Another member of Congress posted a photo on social media of Mamdani wearing a kurta and greeting others for an Eid service with the caption, “After 9/11, we said, ‘Never Forget.’ I think we sadly have forgotten.”  

Further, the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, revised the National Crime Victimization Survey and removed questions about gender identity and about hate crimes against transgender people. Previously, the questions on sexual orientation and gender identity allowed researchers, policymakers, and advocates to quantify the disproportionate victimization of the LGBTQ+ community. Comprehensive data collection surrounding hate crimes and hate incidents is critical in order to better combat such conduct and to take legislative action. NAPABA joined 90+ organizations opposing the decision. Following our advocacy, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reinstated the question pertaining to hate crimes involving gender identity.  

The Justice Department’s action preceded a recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a Tennessee law that banned hormone therapies for transgender minors.

Hate, regardless of the form, political violence, and the marginalization of vulnerable communities must be rejected. NAPABA will continue to oppose hate, support the diverse AANHPI community, and work to strengthen the rule of law and democracy.


III. NAPABA Calls for a Fair and Humane Immigration System

Fundamental to a fair and humane immigration system is one that is subject to constitutional limits, non-discriminatory, and ensures meaningful due process. Recent developments, however, brush against these values.

On May 28, 2025, the federal government announced that it would work to “aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students.”  This policy declaration has not only caused needless anxiety throughout our community, but it is also wholly misguided. While policymakers have the prerogative to address the legitimate national security concerns confronting the United States, they may not enact discriminatory policies like blanket visa revocations based only on national origin and alien land laws. Instead of measures that are tailored to an evidence-based, national security nexus, these recent policies foster an atmosphere of distrust that targets Asian Americans generally, not just the Chinese American community.

NAPABA is also concerned about the federal government’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. On June 2, 2025, NAPABA joined 60 other AANHPI organizations, led by the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), in filing an amicus brief that urged the court to fulfill its role in preserving the right to due process and ensuring meaningful judicial review of executive orders. The last invocation of the Alien Enemies Act justified the incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. The amicus brief shared the stories of these Americans and their families. We urged the court to uphold the right of meaningful due process and judicial review of executive actions.

Lastly, starting on June 6, 2025, protests erupted in Los Angeles in response to federal immigration enforcement actions in the city. On June 7, 2025, for the first time in 33 years, the President deployed National Guard and military service members in Los Angeles to protect federal law enforcement and federal property. The protests continued until around June 15.

NAPABA recognizes the widespread anxiety throughout the AANHPI community and the broader immigrant community.  Whether involving the changes in immigration enforcement policy or the announcement of new immigration policies generally, the shifting landscape of immigration law has created much uncertainty. This includes a recent policy change from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pertaining to the removability of certain Vietnamese immigrants who arrived in the United States prior to 1995. Please visit the Asian Law Caucus’s website for more information.  

In the coming days, NAPABA will promote educational programming to cover many of these changes and more.  Please stay tuned.


We have a lot of work ahead of us, and the NAPABA Policy Team will do its part. But we need your partnership, too. Engage in our committees and networks and register for the NAPABA Convention in Denver, which will be held on November 6-8, 2025. We look forward to seeing you.

In the News: Karen King Writes on her 9-0 Victory at the United States Supreme Court in Golan v. Saada

On October 7, 2022, Law360 published a piece written by AABANY Member Karen King titled “Key to a 9-0 Court Win: Look for a Common Ground.” Karen argued before the Supreme Court in March 2022 in Golan v. Saada, in which the Court decided in favor of Karen’s client in an unanimous 9-0 decision. Karen is a Partner at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello, Co-Chair of AABANY’s Pro Bono and Community Service Committee, and an active member of AABANY’s Anti-Asian Violence Task Force. 

Karen has had an impressive and storied career, with accomplishments reaching back to before her time as a litigator. She was president of the debate team in high school and at Yale University, where she majored in philosophy and political science. After Yale, Karen received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and started her career at Cravath. Two decades later, Karen continues to appear in federal and state courts on behalf of corporate clients while also taking on pro bono clients, being named a “Notable Woman in Law” by Crain’s New York Business and receiving both the Federal Bar Council’s Thurgood Marshall Award for Exceptional Pro Bono Service and the National Asian Pacific Bar Association’s Pro Bono award. Her pro bono clients include victims of discrimination, survivors of domestic violence, students with learning disabilities, victims of gun violence, and prisoners in civil rights issues. 

In the article, Karen writes about the strategies and steps her team undertook to prepare for arguing Golan v. Saada before the Court. 

The case concerned an Italian citizen who filed a petition with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to return his child to Italy through the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Narkis Golan, the child’s mother, petitioned the court to prevent the child’s return to Italy, as the father’s history of abuse would put the child at a risk of psychological harm. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the District Court for the Eastern District of New York agreed that the child could be required to return to Italy by finding “ameliorative measures” to prevent such harm to the child. When Karen brought the case to the Supreme Court for Golan, the issue was whether, under the Hague Convention, courts must consider all possible “ameliorative measures” which would lead to the return of a child to their country of habitual residence. The Court ruled in favor of Karen’s client, finding that courts are not obligated to find options that will enable the child’s safe return before denying return based on a risk of harm. Karen describes in her article how she and her team navigated the diverse judicial philosophies of the Court’s justices to achieve a 9-0 victory. 

Karen and her team took a keen interest in the judicial philosophies and oral argument preferences of justices on the Court to draw broad support from the bench. For example, Karen argued that the Second Circuit’s requirement to consider “ameliorative measures” which would favor return was an outcome not grounded in the text of the Hague Convention—an approach smartly tailored for textualist justices. Karen also writes that this case demonstrated how oral arguments offer not just opportunities for petitioners and respondents to emphasize certain legal points, but also chances to shape the justices’ thinking on the case. 

In addition to demonstrating shrewd foresight through a textualist argument, Karen also underscored the importance of children’s interests in the Hague Convention text. These approaches to Karen’s oral argument performance were reflected in the Court’s opinion, where Justice Sotomayor remanded the case back to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The justice drew upon the textualist ideas and child interest issues which Karen had brought forth during oral argument. 


Karen’s article also reflected on the challenges she faced in preparing for oral argument at the Court for this case, as COVID-19 restrictions and partisan tensions reached new heights during preparations. 

Lastly, Karen’s presence alongside two other Asian American litigators at oral argument before the Court places this case in Asian American legal history. The strategies Karen outlined for stellar advocacy go far beyond Golan v. Saada. As an Asian American community leader, Karen advocates for greater diversity in courtrooms and law firms, guides young litigators, and gives back to communities through pro bono work. AABANY is proud to see the inspiring work Karen King has done inside and outside of her role as a litigator, and we are excited to see how else she will continue to be a leading example for the Asian American community. 

The full article can be found at:

https://www.maglaw.com/media/publications/articles/2022-10-07-morvillo-abramowitz-partner-karen-king-mentioned-in-law360-article

In the News: Paul, Weiss Partners Jeannie Rhee, Lawrence Wee, and Jennifer Wu Offer Advice to Young Asian American Lawyers in “For Asian American Lawyers, Good Mentorship Is Crucial”

In “For Asian American Lawyers, Good Mentorship Is Crucial,” a Law360 Guest Column published on August 16, Paul, Weiss partners Jeannie Rhee, Lawrence Wee, and Jennifer Wu discussed the importance of mentorships and common setbacks and stereotypes faced by Asian American lawyers. Wee and Wu are both AABANY members. Wee is a co-chair of AABANY’s Corporate Law Committee and a former AABANY Board Director, while Wu is a co-chair of the AABANY’s Women’s Committee. Rhee, Wee, and Wu stated that finding good mentors is vital for professional development and career advancement, but also took care to note that the mentor-mentee relationship is two-sided. The authors recommended that mentees find ways to anticipate their mentors’ needs and assist them, while also encouraging mentors to be good listeners and step into their mentees’ shoes. While they maintained that these relationships can help young lawyers learn to manage some challenges associated with being an Asian American in the legal profession, they also recommended that Asian American lawyers should seek out a range of mentors, whether they share the same cultural background or not. 


As mentors, Rhee, Wee, and Wu encouraged younger lawyers to take risks, speak up during meetings and challenging cases, and actively seek out promotions and leadership opportunities, especially since Asian Americans can be seen as risk-averse and face obstacles such as the bamboo ceiling. The authors also cautioned young Asian American lawyers, warning them that they will encounter stereotypes and that not everyone would acknowledge that they are minorities. However, they urged young Asian American lawyers to be their best, most authentic selves and to engage in positive, open communication about race-related issues. They also encouraged Asian American lawyers to become active in affinity groups and seek out organizations dedicated to the Asian American community and the career advancement of Asian American lawyers. The link to the full article is here.

In the News: Litigation Committee Co-Chair Luna Barrington Named Top Lawyer under 40 by Law360 Rising Stars

Out of over 1,400 submissions, AABANY Litigation Committee Co-Chair Luna Barrington has been recognized by Law360 as one of this year’s Rising Stars under 40, as she has secured defense trial verdicts in major class action suits against companies like C&S Wholesale Grocers and Johnson & Johnson. On June 4, Law360 published an article highlighting her recent accomplishments as a trial attorney, underscoring the massive damages she saved her clients by skillfully preparing for and conducting the trial with her trial team. Now a partner at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, she recalls successfully advocating for a group of Mexican-American students in Tucson, AZ, pro bono, as among the proudest moments of her career: in federal court, Barrington fought a state statute banning a Mexican-American studies program in Tucson’s schools, denouncing it as a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. She is also a first-generation lawyer and the first in her family to earn a graduate degree. Please join AABANY in congratulating Luna on being selected by Law360 as one of this year’s Rising Stars under 40, a well-deserved recognition of her achievements and trial skills.

To read the full article, click here (subscription required).

In the News: Law360 Covers AABANY’s Manhattan DA Candidates’ Forum

AABANY’s Manhattan DA Candidates’ Forum held on June 15 and 16 was recently covered in a June 21 Law360 article titled “Manhattan DA Candidates Split Over Hate Crime Strategy.” In the run up to the primary election on June 22, AABANY posed questions to seven Democratic candidates (Tahanie Aboushi, Alvin Bragg, Liz Crotty, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, Diana Florence, Lucy Lang, and Eliza Orlins) and one Republican candidate (Thomas Kenniff) on issues important to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, specifically related to how they would address the surge in anti-Asian violence in New York City. Most of the candidates stated that they would use enhancements to charge perpetrators of hate crimes. In addition, most of the candidates supported creating a hate crimes unit in the DA’s Office, which is one of the proposals offered in AABANY and Paul, Weiss’ report on anti-Asian violence. Only Tahanie Aboushi and Eliza Orlins pledged they would cut the district attorney’s office budget in half. By decreasing the prosecution of low-level offenses, Aboushi and Orlins said the office would be able to focus on more serious crimes, including hate crimes that involve violence. The Law360 article also incorporated Democratic DA Candidate Dan Quart’s stances on the questions posed at the Forum as he was not able to participate due to a prior engagement.

To read the full article, click here. To view the recordings of AABANY’s Manhattan DA Candidates’ Forum, click here for day 1 (Lucy Lang, Alvin Bragg, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, and Tahanie Aboushi) and here for day 2 (Diana Florence, Thomas Kenniff, Eliza Orlins, and Liz Crotty).

In the News: Incoming President-Elect William Ng Quoted in Law360 Article About Ways Employers Can Help Asian Workers Amid Anti-Asian Violence

William Ng, incoming President-Elect at AABANY, was recently interviewed for a Law360 article published on February 26, 2021 titled “3 Ways Employers Can Help Asian Workers As Attacks Surge.” Law360 asked legal experts for tips they could share with employers on how they can create a safe environment for their Asian American employees at work during the rise of anti-Asian violence.

The first tip legal experts shared is to acknowledge the problem. Employers need to recognize and denounce the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes and bigotry. By doing this, it gives a voice to the Asian American community and lets them know that they are supported. The second tip is to have a game plan. William Ng suggested to Law360 that employers should have a plan for exactly how they will handle a situation of anti-Asian harassment or violence. He stated, “It’s just being aware of these issues and understanding, ‘Hey, if this happens, what will we be doing?'” Suggestions William Ng provided include assembling a security management team and being in contact with local law enforcement. The third tip experts suggested is that employers should use training to empower bystanders such as offering bystander intervention training and implicit bias training.

To read the full article, click here (subscription is required).

AABANY is Proud to Launch The Whole Lawyer Podcast, Hosted by Jane Jeong

AABANY is proud to launch its official podcast series, The Whole Lawyer Project, hosted by Jane Jeong, which showcases Asian American attorneys and leaders throughout the nation and the human stories behind their success. 

For Jane, learning about the human stories  —  and sacrifices  — behind our external success is a personal passion and mission. As a member of AABANY’s Young Lawyers Committee, Jane previously wrote about her pursuit of wellness in the legal profession on the AABANY blog, where she published  The Ten Tips Our Asian Parents Never Told Us, Upside Down, and The (COVID) Days of Our Lives

Most recently, Jane shared her story with Law360, in an article entitled The Pursuit Of Wellness In BigLaw: Lessons From My Journey (subscription required). In a heartfelt account, Jane opened up about mental health and wellness issues in Big Law  —  including her personal experiences with the pressures of the industry, the costs of perfectionism, reaching an emotional breaking point and, as a potential blueprint for others, how she has set boundaries and made changes to her daily routine to take care of herself. “I conflated sacrifice with success and exhaustion with excellence. I just continued to reach and reach — demanding that I become the perfect attorney I knew I was not, waiting for the day I could finally stop acting and just be,” she writes. 

Together with Jane, AABANY is proud to further explore the human side of lawyering in The Whole Lawyer Project. The inaugural episodes of the podcast, which feature immediate past AABANY President Brian Song and AboveTheLaw Founder, David Lat, can be found under the tab for The Whole Lawyer Project on the AABANY blog. It can also be found on Spotify and iTunes. For anyone hoping to gain further insight into the human stories behind our external success, it is well worth a listen.


AABANY Mentioned in Law360 Article on Bar Associations in New York Condemning Violence at the U.S. Capitol

The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) was recently mentioned in a Law360 article on New York state bar associations’ reactions to the violence that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. The article states: “The Asian American Bar Association of New York, one of the state’s most vocal attorneys group, endorsed a
statement published by its parent organization, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, decrying the storming of the Capitol as the act of militants.”

NY Lawyers Condemn Storming Of US Capitol By Mob
By Marco Poggio

Law360 (January 7, 2021, 4:34 PM EST) — Prominent New York state bar associations have condemned the violence that unfolded in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, in which a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol as the Electoral College vote certification was in progress, resulting in the deaths of four people. Read more here (subscription is required).

Join AABANY in Supporting Portrait Project 2.0

A recent Law360 article entitled “Why Are Law Clerks So White” reported:

Take any five federal law clerks, and at least four of them would probably be white. And nobody can be certain why.

California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu has some guesses about the reasons black, Asian and Latino lawyers are largely shut out of these prestigious positions that can turbocharge a lawyer’s early career. But he says it’s impossible to pinpoint reasons or patterns because so little data exists.

“We actually don’t even know the most basic things about those opportunities,” Justice Liu told Law360. “It would be interesting if we could know even basic things, like do women judges get more women clerks? We have impressions of that, but we don’t know with any precision whether these things are true.”

The article went on to talk about how Justice Liu plans to address these questions in Portrait Project 2.0. AABANY is supporting this research as a Silver Sponsor. AABANY challenges its members to donate to Portrait Project 2.0. AABANY will match member donations up to $5,000. Join AABANY in advancing the work of Portrait Project 2.0. Read more at https://www.aabany.org/page/PortraitProject20

To read the full Law360 article go to https://www.law360.com/articles/1156019?utm_source=ios-shared&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=ios-shared

The Top 100 Firms For Minority Attorneys – Law360

The Top 100 Firms For Minority Attorneys – Law360