In a first, Biden nominates Muslim woman as federal judge

WASHINGTON: President Biden announced his latest round of judicial nominees, among them Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, who would be the first Muslim American woman to serve as a federal judge if confirmed.

“A nominee who would be the first Bangladeshi-American, the first Muslim-American woman, and only the second Muslim-American person to serve as a federal judge,” the White House said in a statement on Wednesday, referring to Choudhury.

Nusrat Jahan Choudhury has served as legal director for the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union advocacy group since 2020 and has worked with the union in various capacities since 2008. She is a graduate of Yale Law School and received her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.

According to ACLU, much of Choudhury’s work with the organization has involved challenging police practices that discriminate against people of color and disproportionately “punish people for being poor.”

Her nomination is part of eight nominees being proposed by Biden, the 13th tranche since the president assumed office in January 2021. Biden has now nominated 83 federal judges.

The majority of Biden’s judicial nominees have been women and people of color, in line with his promise of nominating a diverse group of people to lifetime appointments to serve on the bench.

Other nominees include Judge Ana Isabel de Alba, who would be the first Latina to serve on the Eastern District of California and the second-ever Latino judge on that court. Judge Nina Nin-Yuen Wang would be just the second Asian-American to serve on the United States District Court for the District of Colorado.

In June 2021, the Senate confirmed Zahid Quraishi to serve as a U.S. district judge for New Jersey, making him the first Muslim in U.S. history to be confirmed as a federal judge.

Former President Trump’s judicial nominees were significantly less diverse, with 76 percent being men and 85 percent being white, according to the Alliance for Justice progressive advocacy group.