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Elected Member

The Hon.
Theodore
D.
Chuang

Location
Greenbelt, MD, USA
Affiliation
U.S. District Court, District of Maryland
Education
Harvard University, B.A.
Harvard Law School, J.D.

Theodore D. Chuang serves as a United States District Judge for the District of Maryland and sits at the United States Courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland. Judge Chuang was nominated by President Obama on September 25, 2013 and received his commission on May 2, 2014. 

Prior to his appointment, Judge Chuang served as Deputy General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2011 to 2014 and as Associate General Counsel of DHS from 2009 to 2011. In 2009, he served as Chief Investigative Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce. From 2007 to 2009, he served as Deputy Chief Investigative Counsel for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. From 2004 to 2007, Judge Chuang was in private practice in Washington, D.C. at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, LLP. 

From 1998 to 2004, Judge Chuang served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. From 1995 to 1998, he served as a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, in Washington, D.C. Judge Chuang began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Dorothy W. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

Throughout his career, Judge Chuang has been active in professional, community, and non-profit organizations. He has served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, a legal services organization serving low income, limited English proficient Asian Americans and immigrants in Maryland and the Washington, D.C. region. He has also served on the Board of Governors of the District of Columbia Bar; as President of the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts, from which he received the 2018 Founders Award; and as President-Elect of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of the Greater Washington, D.C. Area, from which he received the 2019 Pioneer Award. He currently serves as a member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers.  

Judge Chuang graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1994, where he was an Editor of the Harvard Law Review and a Finalist in the Ames Moot Court Competition, and received his B.A. summa cum laude in Economics from Harvard University in 1991. He was born in Media, Pennsylvania and grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he served two terms as an elected member of the Lexington Town Meeting, the town's legislative body.  

Areas of Expertise
Government Law
Federal Courts

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Traynor on Liberty, Law, and Democracy

In his essay "Liberty, Law, and Democracy: Are There Grounds for Realistic Optimism?" Michael Traynor, former President of The American Law Institute, reflects on the challenges facing American democracy amid political polarization and institutional strain. He examines threats to the balance between liberty and law, citing dysfunction across the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, while drawing on historical context and recent scholarship to frame these concerns.

Despite his sober assessment, Traynor maintains a guarded optimism rooted in America’s resilience, civic traditions, and individual potential to effect change. He highlights positive actions within the legal community, nonprofit organizations, and among engaged citizens, while outlining five practical steps Americans can take to strengthen democracy: improving civic education, demanding accountability, fostering open debate, participating in elections and local governance, and resisting simplistic solutions.

Traynor concludes that democracy is “stubborn work,” incremental, imperfect, and ongoing, but expresses confidence that Americans have the resolve to preserve it.

Read the full article The New Nationalist. 

Michael Traynor is senior counsel at Cobalt LLP in Berkeley California. He served as ALI President from 2000 to 2008, and as Chair of the Council from 2008 to 2011. He is also a recipient of ALI's Distinguished Service Award. Mr. Traynor is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.   He received the John P. Frank Outstanding Lawyer Award from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is an honorary life trustee of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and of Earthjustice and a past President (1973) of the Bar Association of San Francisco. 

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