Nusrat Choudhury is America’s first Muslim feminine federal decide, confirms US Senate

By Reuters: The US Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed civil rights lawyer Nusrat Choudhury to the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, making her the primary Bangladeshi-American and feminine Muslim federal decide within the United States.

Choudhury, the authorized director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, was confirmed on a 50-49 vote. She can even be the primary Bangladeshi-American federal decide.

Choudhury beforehand spent most of her skilled profession with the nationwide ACLU, the place she labored on racial justice and nationwide safety points. She was deputy director of the group’s racial justice program from 2018 till 2020. US President Joe Biden nominated her to the federal bench in January 2022.

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer in a press release stated that Choudhury’s “experience as a talented and dedicated civil rights litigator has prepared her to serve with integrity and professionalism on the federal bench, and she will follow the facts and administer justice with fairness and a deep respect for the rule of law.”

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She confronted pushback from some Senate Republicans after she gave inconsistent solutions on whether or not she made feedback at 2015 occasion at Princeton University saying that police killings of unarmed Black males “every day.”

She later in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee panel stated that “Such a statement is inconsistent with my deep respect for law enforcement.”

Choudhury clerked for a decide on the close by Southern District of New York trial court docket in addition to the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which opinions instances from the New York, Connecticut and Vermont federal courts.

Biden additionally appointed the primary Muslim decide in US historical past, US District Judge Zahid Quraishi. The Senate confirmed him to the New Jersey federal trial court docket in 2021.