By Jacqueline Thomsen
(Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed civil rights lawyer Nusrat Choudhury to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, making her the first Bangladeshi-American and female Muslim federal judge in the United States.
Choudhury, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, was confirmed on a 50-49 vote. She will also be the first Bangladeshi-American federal judge.
Choudhury previously spent most of her professional career with the national ACLU, where she worked on racial justice and national security issues. She was deputy director of the organization’s racial justice program from 2018 until 2020. U.S. President Joe Biden nominated her to the federal bench in January 2022.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer in a statement said 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.”
She came under criticism from some Senate Republicans after she gave inconsistent answers on whether she stated at a 2015 event at Princeton University that “the killing of unarmed Black men by police happens every day in America.”
Choudhury told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in April 2022 that she “said it in my role as an advocate,” but later said in a letter to the panel that she never made the comments.
“Such a statement is inconsistent with my deep respect for law enforcement, appreciation for the risks they take, and the important role they play in advancing public safety,” Choudhury wrote.
Choudhury clerked for a judge on the nearby Southern District of New York trial court as well as the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which reviews cases from the New York, Connecticut and Vermont federal courts.
Biden also appointed the first Muslim judge in U.S. history, U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi. The Senate confirmed him to the New Jersey federal trial court in 2021.
(Reporting by Jacqueline Thomsen in Washington; Editing by David Bario and Aurora Ellis)
