US Senate confirms Nusrat Choudhury as first Muslim woman federal judge

The Senate has confirmed civil rights attorney Nusrat Choudhury to become the first Muslim woman to serve as a federal judge in the history of the United States, reported the Associated Press.

Following a party-line vote on Thursday(June 15), she will start her lifetime appointment in Brooklyn, New York.

She is the legal director of the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which applauded the confirmation. She worked at the national ACLU office from 2008 to 2020, spending seven of those years as the deputy director of the ACLU Racial Justice Programme.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The ACLU referred to her in a tweet as a "trailblazing civil rights lawyer".

Who is she?

She made history as the first Muslim-American woman and Bangladeshi-American to be a federal judge, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, who made the recommendation.

“Nusrat Choudhury is a shining example of the American Dream,” Schumer said in a statement.

“She is the daughter of immigrant parents, a graduate of Columbia, Princeton, and Yale Law School, and has dedicated her career to making sure all people can have their voices heard in court,” he added.

Her bio on the ACLU’s website says: “Nusrat helped secure the first federal court ruling striking down the US government’s no-fly list procedures for violating due process.

“She filed litigation to challenge the NYPD’s unjustified and discriminatory profiling of Muslims for surveillance, which resulted in a court-ordered settlement agreement, and to secure public records about the FBI’s racial and ethnic mapping program.”

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, abstained from the vote because she supports criminal justice reform. Her prior comments, he claimed in a statement, raise concerns about her capacity to be objective towards law enforcement officials, as reported by the Guardian.

Choudhury served as a legal clerk in New York City for Judges Barrington Parker Jr. of the 2nd USCircuit Court of Appeals and USDistrict Judge Denise LCote.

She was a member of the Presidential Task Force on Strengthening Public Confidence in the American Justice System.

Her selection adhered to Joe Biden's pledge to prioritise diversity in background, ethnicity, and gender in his judicial appointments.

Also watch |The US and Papua New Guinea sign a defence pact

Zahid Quraishi, the first federal Muslim judge in the country, was confirmed by the Senate to serve as a district court judge in New Jersey two years ago. On September 11, 2001, Quraishi started working for a New York legal firm. Later, he joined the legal department of the Army and served throughout two Iraqi deployments.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE: