WASHINGTON: Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, a Bangladeshi American lawyer, has been confirmed by the US Senate, making her the first Muslim woman federal judge in America.

“The United States will have its first Muslim woman federal judge, as the US Senate confirmed, a Bangladeshi American, on Thurs­day,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a tweet.

Adding that she will be a US District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, Mr Schumer, a New York Democrat, wrote: “She’s an ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) Legal Director and I was proud to recommend her to the president.” 

US President Joe Biden nominated Ms Choudhury, a civil rights attorney, in January. On May 15, she was confirmed to the life-tenured position with a narrow margin of 50-49 votes.

Zahid Quraishi, an American lawyer of Pakistani ancestry, is the first Muslim American federal judge in US history. He was also appointed by President Biden and confirmed in 2021 as a federal judge for the District of New Jersey.

A post on the official ACLU site said Ms Choudhury has led litigation to protect immigrants from dangerous detention conditions and her team advanced First Amendment rights, government transparency, change in the criminal legal system and policing, voting rights, access to reproductive healthcare, gender equity, and the rights of LGBTQIA+ people, children in the foster system, young people in juvenile detention, and people in prisons and jails. 

At the ACLU, Ms Choudhury led efforts to challenge racial profiling and unlawful stop-and-frisk, the targeting of people of colour for surveillance without evidence of wrongdoing, and practices that disproportionately punish people for being poor.

Her work against practices that disproportionately punish people for poverty without prior court hearings, consideration of ability to pay, or legal representation changed practices and promoted fairness and equal treatment of rich and poor in courts.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2023