Judge Theodore Chuang Wife, Salary, USAID, Political Party

Theodore Chuang Biography – Theodore Chuang Wiki

Theodore Chuang is a Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and sits at the United States Courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland. He was nominated to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama on September 25, 2013 and received his commission on May 2, 2014. He is the first Asian American to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

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. He served as Deputy Chief Investigative Counsel for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2007 to 2009. 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.

Professional Organizations & Community

Throughout his career, Judge Chuang has been active in professional organizations and has served in leadership and governance roles for community and non-profit institutions. He has served on the Board of Governors of the District of Columbia Bar and is a member of the American Law Institute. He has also 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; 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.

Education

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. Judge Chuang 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.

Theodore Chuang Age

Theodore David Chuang was born on October 17, 1969 in Media, Pennsylvania. He was raised in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Theodore Chuang Wife

Judge Theodore Chuang is married to his wife Jacinta Ma, a civil rights and public policy advocate. She most recently served as the Director of the Office of Communications and Legislative Affairs at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Theodore Chuang Family

Judge Theodore Chuang and his wife, Jacinta Ma, have two children, Kalia and Kiara.

Theodore Chuang Salary

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang has a salary of $247,400 in 2025.

Theodore Chuang Political Party

Judge Theodore Chuang has Democratic Party credentials: President Barack Obama appointed him in 2014 to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.

USAID

On March 18, 2025, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang ruled that Elon Musk and the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) likely violated the Constitution when they unilaterally acted to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“The court finds that Defendants’ unilateral actions to shut down USAID likely violated the United States Constitution,” Chuang wrote in a 68-page ruling.

Chuang ruled in favor of a group of more than two dozen unnamed current and former USAID employees and contractors who had challenged the efforts to shutter USAID, which were mounted by DOGE and Musk, a senior White House adviser who President Trump has said is the leader of the task force, CBS News reported.

Chuang granted in part their request for a preliminary injunction and said that DOGE and Musk likely violated the Constitution’s Appointments Clause and separation of powers.

He ordered Musk and task force employees to reinstate access to email, payment and other electronic systems to all current USAID employees and personal services contractors. The judge also prevented DOGE and Musk from taking any action relating to the shutdown of USAID, including placing employees on administrative leave, firing USAID workers, closing its buildings, bureaus or offices, and deleting the contents of its websites or collections.

DOGE and Musk are prohibited under the judge’s order from taking any other actions relating to USAID without the “express authorization” of an agency official with legal authority to take the action.

The shuttering of USAID was one of DOGE’s prized cuts and included the firing of all employees, removal of signage from its headquarters in DC and ending programs worldwide. The Trump administration hailed the halt as a way to do away with wasteful government funding, including $60 billion in foreign aid spending and 92% of USAID grants, according to the New York Post.

Theodore Chuang Ethnicity

Judge Theodore D. Chuang is of Asian American ethnicity.