Judge Raymond Lohier Shares His Immigration Story and the Diverse Perspective it Brings

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Increased diversity enhances public confidence  in the work of the federal Judiciary. So many   people view diversity through a very very  specific lens usually racial diversity and   gender diversity but if you uh view it as I do  as a much broader enterprise then uh the value   of it I think becomes very apparent. I really do  think first obviously foremost of my own Court as   a family that includes everyone not just judges  but also staff judicial assistants, law clerks,   everyone is a part of the family and I feel very  strongly about that. The one thing about families   is you always learn from each other you need to  rely on other family members to get the job done. My mother is from the northern part of Haiti and  that part of my family stretches way back to well   before the Haitian revolution. My father's  family comes from the south part of Haiti,   part of it is actually from French derivation. My  father is actually an exile so during the period   of time when Papa Doc Duvalier was in power  that was I think as many people know a very   difficult autocratic regime and my father was a  young medical student he may have just graduated   from medical school. He found himself on the wrong  side of the regime and so he left immediately for   Montreal. Meanwhile my mother went to Canada to  train as a nurse so there was a whole diaspora   of Haitians who went from Haiti to either Canada,  particularly the French speaking part of Canada   and Quebec or to the to the United States for  different professional reasons. Some Haitians   also went to West Africa but in any event my  parents actually met in Montreal and ergo me.   That's where I was born and I lived there and my  first language was French, Francais and I we lived   there until I was six and then for a number of  different professional reasons having to do with   my father we moved to the United States at that  point. So I grew up in Philadelphia and went to   a Quaker School. The importance of education was  instilled in me at a very early age and I've taken   that very seriously. I was a philosophy major  and learned so much from my professors. Today   even as a judge they say call me whatever call  me by my first name and I'm unable to do that,   I call them Professor because I view that as the  highest calling. I was with a very diverse group   of college roommates actually interestingly one of  my college roommates is a federal district court   judge and is actually the Chief Judge of Hawaii,  Derek Watson Chief Judge Watson and a wonderful   friend. At every point in my life I benefited  from and I hope that others have benefited from   a diverse group of people who bring to whatever  the project is their diversity but also different   views that strengthen the project, that strengthen  the ability collectively to arrive at some form of success. The one form of diversity that's very  meaningful to me is the diversity of the country   from which we come as Americans. It's been a  meaningful component of my life that I'm an   immigrant, that I immigrated and that so many  people that I know immigrated particularly as   young people. So I've lost my French accent as so  many people do who immigrate when they're five or   six or seven but I've never really lost the the  memories and of course it's important to me that   my parents are of not just Haitian descent but  descended from the Caribbean. I happen to be on   a court right now in the second Circuit Court of  Appeals that for the first time in its history   has more women active judges than than men. And  it's you know a wonderful development in my view   and but nothing is given so Frederick Douglas  who is a hero of mine has a wonderful line that   you know power is never seized without a struggle  never has it and never will. And gender diversity,   different types of diversity don't come about  just willy-nilly. They come about because people   want it and people struggle for it and push  for it I think it's important for the Federal   Judiciary. It's important because it enhances  public confidence in our work and what we do.
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Channel: United States Courts
Views: 1,121
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Length: 5min 30sec (330 seconds)
Published: Thu Feb 15 2024
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