US President Joe Biden on Tuesday introduced his intent to appoint Indian-American Rupa Ranga Puttagunta as a federal choose, amongst 10 different various picks for prime judicial positions which embrace African-American and Muslim American candidates. Among the presidential nominations, 10 are for Federal Circuit and District Court choose posts, and one is for Superior Court Judge for the District of Columbia.
These highly-qualified candidates replicate the president’s deeply-held conviction that the federal bench ought to replicate the complete range of the American individuals – each in background and in skilled expertise, the White House stated. If confirmed by the US Senate, Judge Puttagunta could be the primary Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) girl to serve on the US District Court for the District of DC, the White House stated.
Judge Puttagunta at the moment serves as an Administrative Judge for the D.C. Rental Housing Commission. Prior to becoming a member of the Commission in 2019, Judge Puttagunta was a solo practitioner from 2013 to 2019, representing indigent felony defendants in trial and on enchantment. Before opening her personal follow, Judge Puttagunta practised household and appellate regulation at Delaney McKinney, LLP from 2012 to 2013. While engaged on home relations issues in non-public follow, Judge Puttagunta additionally offered a whole bunch of hours of professional bono authorized providers by volunteering at D.C. Superior Court’s Family Court Self-Help Center and Attorney Negotiator Program and representing victims of home violence in D.C. Superior Court. Judge Puttagunta started her authorized profession as a regulation clerk for Judge William M. Jackson of the D.C. Superior Court from 2008 to 2010, as properly as the Senior Judges of the D.C. Court of Appeals from 2010 to 2011.
Judge Puttagunta obtained her Juris Doctor diploma from Ohio State Moritz College of Law in 2007. The nominations introduced on Tuesday additionally embrace three African American girls and a Muslim American.
If confirmed by the Senate, Judge Zahid N Quraishi could be the primary Muslim American federal choose in US historical past. Of Pakistani descent, Judge Quraishi is a United States Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, a place he was appointed to in 2019.
Prior to his appointment, Judge Quraishi was a accomplice at Riker Danzig the place he chaired the agency’s White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigations Group and served as his agency’s first Chief Diversity Officer.
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