Biden nominates first Muslim woman as federal judge

President Biden on Wednesday 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.

The eight nominees in Biden’s 13th round of judicial nominations were nearly all women, with only one male nominee included.

The district nominees are Choudhury, Tiffany Cartwright, Ana Isabel de Alba, Robert Steven Huie, Natasha Merle, Jennifer Rearden and Judge Nina Nin-Yuen Wang. Arianna Freeman was nominated to serve as a circuit court judge for the 3rd U.S. Circuit.

If confirmed, Choudhury would also be the first Bangladeshi American to serve as a federal judge.

She currently serves as as legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois. Choudhury, a graduate of Yale, Princeton and Columbia, has held numerous positions in the ACLU throughout her career, including working as an attorney for the Racial Justice Program.

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.”

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.

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.

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.