©2026 League of Conservation Voters
Issues
The Senate considered President Joe Biden’s nomination of Dale E. Ho to serve as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Due to its jurisdiction over Manhattan, the Southern District of New York is one of the most powerful trial courts in the world. Federal judges serve for life and the laws that protect our environment and democracy need judges who will uphold and enforce them. Ho is one of the nation’s leading experts on the fundamental right to vote and has been one of the nation’s most prominent litigators. Prior to his judicial service, he served as Voting Rights Project Director for the American Civil Liberties Union, followed in Thurgood Marshall’s footsteps working at the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and taught at New York University School of Law. He has practiced before the United States Supreme Court as well as circuit and district courts, and testified before Congress as well as state legislatures. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Judge Barbara S. Jones of the Southern District of New York and Judge Robert S. Smith of the New York Court of Appeals. On June 14, the Senate confirmed Ho to be a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by a vote of 50-49 (Senate roll call vote 162).
©2026 League of Conservation Voters