Thomas Tang (January 11, 1922 – July 18, 1995) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1977 to 1995. Tang was the first American of Chinese descent to become a U.S. federal judge.
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 22/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 582/year
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1977–1995Court of Appeals of Arizona · 1977–1993
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- Asian American
Prior employment
- Private practice, Phoenix, Arizona1959–1963, 1971–1977
- Superior Court of Arizona, Maricopa CountyJudge · 1963–1970
- Phoenix, ArizonaCity councilman · 1960–1962
State of ArizonaAssistant attorney general · 1957–1958- Maricopa County, ArizonaDeputy county attorney · 1952–1957
U.S. Army first lieutenant1942–1946, 1951–1952- Arizona Supreme CourtLaw clerk , Hon. Evo DeConcini · 1950–1951
Appointments
1977–1995 · Appointed by Jimmy Carter (Democratic)Term ended: Death- 1977–1993
Education
- Santa Clara Universityba
- University of Arizonajd
- University of Arizona College of Law (now James E. Rogers College of Law)LL.B. · 1950
- University of Santa Clara (now Santa Clara University)B.S. · 1947