Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts

Amy K. Matsui is Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts at the National Women’s Law Center. She works on economic issues affecting low- and moderate-income women and families, with special emphasis on federal and state tax policy and women’s retirement security. Her work with retirement savings policy and federal and state tax credits for working families comprises policy analysis, federal advocacy, and public education and outreach. She also directs the Center's advocacy efforts around federal judicial nominations and diversity in the federal judiciary. Ms. Matsui has worked at the Center since 2002. Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Matsui practiced commercial law in the private sector. She clerked for the Honorable Carolyn Dineen King, then-Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in 2000. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford Law School.

Expert in: Tax Credits Outreach, Judicial Nominations, Family Tax Credits, Social Security, Supreme Court, Judges & the Courts, Social Security & Retirement
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My Take

Cloture Petition Filed on Tenth Circuit Nominee. Really.

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: July 27, 2012 at 04:10 pm

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Reid filed cloture in an attempt to schedule a confirmation vote on a nominee to a federal court of appeals, in an attempt to push back against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s declaration last month that confirmation votes would, especially on court of appeals nominations, grind to a virtual halt because of the elections (the ones that are being held over three months from now, yes). The kicker: the nominee, Robert Bacharach, nominated to an Oklahoma seat on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, has the full support of his Republican home-state senators. And he was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan voice vote. And was rated unanimously well-qualified by the ABA -- unsurprisingly, given his ten years as a federal magistrate judge.

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In Case You Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Worse in the Senate: The Judicial Nominations Edition

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: July 24, 2012 at 04:35 pm

Last week, I lamented that, in an era of 70+ judicial vacancies and 20+ nominees cooling their heels waiting for a vote, the Senate is only managing to schedule votes on one district court nominee per week.

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Senate Does 1/18 of the Work It Could Have Done

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: July 19, 2012 at 10:06 am

It used to be fairly routine for the Senate to confirm handfuls of judicial nominees – especially district court nominees – at a time. Indeed, Senator Patrick Leahy recently recounted that the Senate confirmed 18 of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees in one day. The Senate could have equaled this impressive feat on Monday, when a total of 18 nominees were ready for a vote, and time was scheduled on the calendar for a confirmation vote. But instead, just as it has for the last two weeks, the Senate confirmed one district court nominee. One!

And it's not as though the nomination required extended debate, or that the outcome was seriously in question – Kevin McNulty, nominated to the district court in New Jersey, was confirmed on Monday by a vote of 91-3. So why wouldn't the Senate just vote on all 18 – or 14 (the total number of district court judges ready for votes), or seven (the total number of nominees approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee through April 19, the day now-Judge McNulty was voted out of committee), or six (the number of judicial emergencies among those nominees), or even two (there is another nominee from New Jersey, voted out of committee the same day as Judge McNulty) nominees?

Well, simply stated: obstruction.

It's no secret that unprecedented obstruction in the Senate has slowed the accomplishment of the people's business to a crawl. And the judicial confirmation process has been no exception.

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Supreme Court Review: 2011-2012 Term

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: July 13, 2012 at 02:41 pm

This Supreme Court Term presented both a significant victory and significant setbacks for women’s rights. The victory, although qualified: the Court’s 5-4 decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Women’s rights advocates and people across the country continue to celebrate this landmark decision upholding a law that offers critical protections for women’s health and economic security. But while it ruled that the law is constitutional, the Court limited the penalties the federal government can impose if a state refuses to participate in the expansion of the Medicaid program set forth in the ACA, meaning that some states may not expand Medicaid. Further, Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion, particularly when read in conjunction with the stinging joint dissent signed by Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito, raises questions about the Court’s future Commerce Clause and Spending Clause jurisprudence and may invite further constitutional challenges to important social programs.

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Tags: Supreme Court, Supreme Court, Judges & the Courts | 1 comment

Mary Lewis Confirmed to South Carolina District Court Yesterday

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: June 19, 2012 at 02:37 pm

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Mary Geiger Lewis to a seat on the District Court of  South Carolina by a vote of 64-27. Upon her confirmation, Judge Lewis becomes the third female judge (of ten judges total) on this court, and the 63rd woman confirmed to a district court seat during the Obama Administration. Her confirmation is good news, coming on the heels of a CRS report that concluded both that the number of district court vacancies has increased rather than decreased since the beginning of President Obama's administration, and that "fewer Obama district court nominees have been confirmed by the Senate than were confirmed during the first terms of the four preceding Presidents."

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