Who appointed Lucy Haeran Koh?

President Joseph R. Biden appointed Lucy Haeran Koh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2021.

Was Lucy Haeran Koh appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Lucy Haeran Koh was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Lucy Haeran Koh's confirmation vote?

The Senate confirmed Lucy Haeran Koh 50–45 on December 13, 2021.

Ninth Circuit / Appointed 2021 / Active

Lucy Haeran Koh

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Appointed by President Joseph R. Biden in 2021 and confirmed by the Senate 50–45, Lucy Haeran Koh is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1993. She previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1968 · age 58
Appointed by: Joseph R. Biden, 2021
Confirmed: 50–45
Education: Harvard 1990 · Harvard Law School 1993
Succeeded: Richard A. Paez

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
2010	Northern District of California succeeded Ronald M. Whyte	Obama (D)	90–0
2021	Ninth Circuit succeeded Richard A. Paez	Biden (D)	50–45

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own.

Confirmation vote · Northern District of California

Nomination Confirmed 90–0 on June 7, 2010 · 111th Congress, Roll Call 178. Each senator links to their judicial-voting record.

Voted to confirm · 90

53 D, 35 R, 2 I

Did not vote · 10

4 D, 6 R

Confirmation vote · Ninth Circuit

Nomination Confirmed 50–45 on December 13, 2021 · 117th Congress, Roll Call 494. Each senator links to their judicial-voting record.

Voted to confirm · 50

48 D, 2 I

Voted against · 45

45 R

Did not vote · 5

5 R

Education

Harvard University	B.A.	1990
Harvard Law School	J.D.	1993

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Koh was assigned 2,657 district-court cases (2006–2021). Median time from filing to termination: 228 days across 2,654 closed cases.

Other federal statutes17%

Civil rights16%

Contract13%

Intellectual property9%

Other civil matters8%

Labor & ERISA8%

Other28%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

On appeal

Of 192 of Koh’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 149 were affirmed, 29 reversed or vacated, and 14 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Koh authored 13 published opinions for the court (2010–2011). Most cited: Kowalsky v. Hewlett-Packard Co. (28 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2011	Kowalsky v. Hewlett-Packard Co.	771 F. Supp. 2d 1156	28
2010	Appling v. Wachovia Mortgage, FSB	745 F. Supp. 2d 961	21
2011	Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.	768 F. Supp. 2d 1040	17
2011	Fujitsu Ltd. v. Belkin International, Inc.	782 F. Supp. 2d 868	16
2011	Ciampi v. City of Palo Alto	790 F. Supp. 2d 1077	12
2011	Northstar Financial Advisors, Inc. v. Schwab Investments	781 F. Supp. 2d 926	11
2010	Kowalsky v. Hewlett-Packard Co.	771 F. Supp. 2d 1138	11
2010	Errico v. Pacific Capital Bank, N.A.	753 F. Supp. 2d 1034	9
2011	Krieger v. Atheros Communications, Inc.	776 F. Supp. 2d 1053	8
2011	Summers v. Delta Airlines, Inc.	805 F. Supp. 2d 874	6
2011	Los Padres Forestwatch v. United States Forest Service	776 F. Supp. 2d 1042	5
2011	Northstar Financial Advisors, Inc. v. Schwab Investments	807 F. Supp. 2d 871	4
2010	Columbia Casualty Co. v. Gordon Trucking, Inc.	758 F. Supp. 2d 909	2

Showing the 13 most-cited of 13 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Lucy Haeran Koh?: President Joseph R. Biden appointed Lucy Haeran Koh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2021.
Was Lucy Haeran Koh appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Lucy Haeran Koh was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Lucy Haeran Koh's confirmation vote?: The Senate confirmed Lucy Haeran Koh 50–45 on December 13, 2021.
Which court is Lucy Haeran Koh on?: Lucy Haeran Koh is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.

4 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).