WASHINGTON (Washington Insider Magazine) – Nusrat Jahan Choudhury’s appointment to the federal court was officially announced by President Joe Biden on Wednesday, and if accepted by the Senate, she will be the first Muslim American woman to sit on the bench. She is also the first Muslim woman to be appointed to the federal judiciary in the United States.
Choudhury was appointed to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, making her the first Bangladeshi American to be assigned to a federal court. She would also be the second Muslim American to be named to a federal judgeship, according to the White House announcement.
Choudhury is the legal director of the ACLU’s Illinois chapter and was previously the deputy director of the ACLU’s national Racial Justice Program. Among her many accomplishments are her degrees from Columbia University, Yale Law School and Princeton University.
Among the other nominees are Nina Nin-Yuen Wang, the second Asian American to serve on the United States District Court, Ana Isabel de Alba, the first Latina to serve on the Eastern District of California, and Arianna Freeman, the first African-American woman to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Jennifer Rearden, Robert Steven Huie, Tiffany Cartwright, and Natasha Merle are among the president’s first round of 2022 nominations.
The appointments support Biden’s goal of nominating more women and people of color to lifetime bench appointments. This is the current trend, in stark contrast to his immediate predecessor.
Former President Donald Trump’s nominees were 85 percent Caucasian and 76 percent men, according to the Alliance for Justice advocacy group. According to the White House, Biden has nominated 78 percent women and 53 percent members of minority groups.
Democrats have pushed Biden to make federal judge selections a priority after Trump and former House Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a deliberate effort to influence the country’s courts.
According to ABC News, Trump appointed 245 federal judges in his single term, compared to 334 appointed by former President Barack Obama over two terms.
Nevertheless, as of Jan 1, Biden had nominated the most federal judges by any president since Ronald Reagan’s first year in office.
