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

Did You File Your Taxes – in 2008?

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: April 04, 2012 at 03:39 pm

It’s April and springtime, which means that it’s the final countdown to Tax Day on April 17. For those who haven’t yet filed their 2011 taxes, I offer one more item for your consideration prior to the April 17 deadline. And even those families who have already filed their tax returns for the last tax year (and hopefully claimed tax credits for which they were eligible) shouldn’t stop reading here.

April 17 isn’t just the deadline for filing your 2011 tax return without an extension. It’s the deadline for filing past tax returns – specifically, for the nearly one million individuals and families who failed to file a 2008 tax return. Why bother after three years? Well, the IRS estimates that nearly $1 billion in refunds has been just sitting in the vaults, so to speak, and that over half of those who failed to file a 2008 return may be entitled to a refund of over $600.

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Tags: IRS, Tax Credits Outreach, Tax Refunds, Taxes, Family Tax Credits, Federal Tax Policy, Tax & Budget | Add new comment

First Confirmations in Wake of Judges Deal: Inching Forward

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: March 15, 2012 at 03:25 pm

As you may be aware, despite over 80 judicial vacancies (35 of which were judicial emergencies), at the beginning of this week the Senate had only confirmed 7 judges in 2012. Yesterday, the landscape changed somewhat. Precipitated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s filing cloture petitions on 17 district court nominees, Senate leadership agreed to confirm a dozen district court nominees and two circuit court nominees by May 7. The first of those confirmations occurred today, with votes on Gina Groh, nominated to a seat on the Northern District of West Virginia, and Michael Fitzgerald, nominated to a seat on the Central District of California. Judge Groh was confirmed 95-2; Judge Fitzgerald was confirmed 91-6.

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Tags: Courts, Judicial Nominees, Judicial Nominations, Judges & the Courts | 1 comment

Women in the Federal Judiciary: Taking Stock

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: March 14, 2012 at 12:51 pm

As the Senate is poised to start the first of 17 cloture votes on district court judges, and in the midst of Women’s History Month, we over at NWLC took a mental step back to look at the big picture of women in the federal judiciary. Yes, women make up 50% of the population and, for twenty-five years, nearly 50% of law students. But only 30% of federal judges, even today, are women.

And yes, over the past several years, the number of women on the federal bench has largely stagnated. We clearly have a long way to go before women, especially women of color, are adequately represented on our federal courts. But we should still celebrate when progress is being made.

The White House yesterday released an infographic on President Obama’s judicial nominees. 47% of President Obama’s confirmed judicial nominees have been women, and about 19% have been women of color. In addition, President Obama’s nominees have broken a number of long-overdue gender barriers. For example, there are three women on the Supreme Court for the first time in history (with the nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic Justice and the first Justice with a disability, and Justice Elena Kagan). Five of his district court nominees became the first woman to serve in their district. And one of his pending nominees, Judge Jacqueline Nguyen, would be the first Asian American woman to serve on a federal appellate court. (The infographic has information about other nominees who have added other long-overdue kinds of diversity to the federal courts as well).

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Tags: Judicial Nominees, Take Action, Women in the Judiciary, Judicial Nominations, Judges & the Courts | Add new comment

Senator Reid Files Cloture on 17 Judicial Nominees

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: March 13, 2012 at 11:47 am

Last night, Senator Harry Reid took one giant step forward towards clearing the backlog of judicial nominations. As you’ll recall, the Senate’s recent track record on confirming judges is less than stellar: twenty nominees were left waiting for votes at the end of last year, and the Senate has only confirmed 7 judges in 2012. With 83 vacancies in the federal judiciary, 35 of which are judicial emergencies, what possible justification could there be for leaving twenty-two nominees waiting for votes? Just ask Senator Lee of Utah, who has flat-out stated that he is holding up judicial (and executive branch) nominations in retaliation for President Obama’s recess appointments to the Consumer Protection board and the NLRB in January…

But I digress. So what has Senator Reid done to move nominations forward? Yesterday evening, he filed cloture petitions on 17 district court nominations. It will be timely to start voting on the first of these petitions, for the nomination of Gina Groh to a district court seat in West Virginia that has been vacant since 2006, on Wednesday morning. After that, the rest of the 17 will be taken up one at a time.  If the cloture vote is successful, then the Senate will schedule a yes-or-no vote on the nomination.*

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Tags: Judicial Nominees, Senate, Take Action, Judicial Nominations, Judges & the Courts | Add new comment

Two Judges Confirmed; Twenty-Two Not

Posted by Amy K. Matsui, Senior Counsel and Director of Women and the Courts | Posted on: March 09, 2012 at 10:56 am

Tuesday, the Senate confirmed two district court judges, Mary Philips for the Western District of Missouri and Thomas Rice for the Eastern District of Washington. Both of these nominees were unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in October 2011, but had been waiting, for no apparent reason, for confirmation votes for several months.

No other votes on nominations have been announced. In case you missed it, last Friday, Politico reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was refusing to agree to votes on the rest of the pending judicial nominees (twelve other nominees were approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, and ten more have been approved since the beginning of 2012). In the same article, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid stated that he's ready to take extraordinary steps to move nominees, if a deal isn't reached soon.

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