U.S. Senate confirms Sunshine Sykes to federal bench

Judge Sunshine Sykes was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve in the U.S. District Court for the Central District in California. (Courtesy photo)

Judge Sunshine Sykes was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve in the U.S. District Court for the Central District in California. (Courtesy photo)

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — On May 18, the U.S. Senate confirmed 51-45 Sunshine Suzanne Sykes, 48, who becomes the first Native judge in California’s history. Sykes who is Diné, is also only the seventh Indigenous federal judge named to the bench.

Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer congratulated Sykes on the historic confirmation.

“On behalf of the Navajo Nation, we congratulate Judge Sykes on her historic nomination and becoming the first Diné person to serve as a U.S. District Court Judge.,” Nez said. “Her upbringing, exceptional experience, and commitment to serving the public and the justice system will bring new and unique perspectives to the justice system. We will continue to pray for her continued success as she serves in the U.S. District Court and we thank her for being an inspiration to our young Navajo people.

The daughter of a Navajo mother, Sykes was born on the Navajo Nation in Tuba City, Arizona, spending most of her early years there and in the border town of Gallup, New Mexico, according to Sharon Driscoll, who wrote for the Stanford Lawyer in 2017 and who interviewed Sykes.

Driscoll wrote that Sykes parents divorced when she was young and her mother sometimes struggled to make ends meet while raising her. Though it wasn’t poverty that stood out to Sykes as much as the sting of prejudice.

“Gallup was a kind of hard town with lots of alcoholism and racism. We were pretty poor and didn’t have a car, so we walked a lot and I remember people calling us names and being mean because we were Native,” she told Driscoll.

Since 2013, Sykes has served as a California Superior Court Judge on the Superior Court of Riverside County. She received her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2001 and her B.A from Stanford University in 1997.

In 2015, Sykes was appointed to the California Supreme Court chief justice to the Tribal Court-State Court Forum, a Judicial Council that was established to bring together tribal judges and state court judges to address issues that affected tribal communities.

From 2001 to 2003, Sykes was a staff attorney for California Indian Legal Services. From 2003 to 2005, Sykes worked as a contract attorney for the Juvenile Defense Panel at the Southwest Justice Center. From 2005 to 2013, she served as a Deputy County Counsel in the Office of County Counsel for Riverside County.

Driscoll said that Sykes is familiar with many issues that come up for the Native community including the Indian Child Welfare Act. Sykes worked a few miles from Sherman Indian School, a boarding school established in the 1900s, which was established in the 1900s when the federal government forcibly removed Native children from their homes and moved them into boarding school.

“Both of my grandparents were taken from the Navajo Reservation and put into the Sherman school. All the children were forced to cut their hair and wear non-traditional clothes, and they weren’t allowed to speak their traditional languages or practice their traditional ceremonies,” Sykes told Driscoll.

Sykes said she still remains humble and remembers how she got where she is today.

“I’m not here just because of my own ambitions. I have to look back at the struggles that my family went through, and that my ancestors went through, to help me get here,” she told Driscoll. “I don’t ever forget that.”

Sharon Driscoll of the Stanford Lawyer contributed to this story; information and quotes are used with her permission.

Her full profile of Sykes can be found at https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-lawyer/articles/taking-the-stand-judge-sunshine-sykes/.

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