President Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated the top lawyer at a major labor union and a Muslim American attorney to become federal appeals court judges as part of a continued effort by the White House to diversify the federal judiciary.
Biden nominated Nicole Berner, the general counsel of Service Employees International Union, to the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and New Jersey attorney Adeel Mangi to join the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
If confirmed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, Berner would become the first openly LGBTQ 4th Circuit judge and Mangi, a partner at the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, would become the first Muslim American federal appellate judge ever.
The only two other Muslim Americans to serve as life-tenured federal judges were appointed by Biden to trial courts, and a fourth's district court nomination is pending. Biden has also appointed the only two openly LGBTQ women federal appellate judges.
Biden also on Wednesday nominated three new district court judges in Oregon and Indiana, a state with two Republican senators, whose support will be needed for the two nominees to win Senate confirmation under the Senate's "blue slip" custom.
The Democratic president has so far won Senate confirmation for 154 lifetime federal judicial nominees, the vast majority of whom have been women or people of color.
His decision to nominate Berner heeds calls from progressive advocates for the White House to appoint more pro-union labor lawyers to the bench at a time of rising unionization efforts nationwide and strikes in major industries.
Berner, a former staff attorney at Planned Parenthood, has worked since 2006 at SEIU, which represents about two million workers. She is also a partner at the union-side labor law firm James & Hoffman.
The progressive group Demand Justice has since 2019 included Berner on a short-list of potential Supreme Court nominees. Its co-founder, Chris Kang, on X called her "a home run pick and one of Biden's best — which is tough competition!"
She is married to Debra Katz, a prominent lawyer who during now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's 2018 confirmation hearings represented Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused him of sexual assault.
Pakistan-born Mangi began his legal career in 2000 at Patterson Belknap and in 2010 became a partner. His cases include a successful legal challenge on behalf of Muslim communities in New Jersey seeking to open mosques in Bernards Township and Bayonne.
The two state court judges Biden nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Gretchen Lund and Cristal Brisco, would become the first Black woman on the court if confirmed.
He also nominated Amy Baggio, a state court judge in Portland, Oregon and former federal public defender, to serve on that state's federal bench.
Read more:
Biden secures 150th judicial confirmation with US Senate votes
Senate Republicans question Oregon judicial nominee's support for diversity
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