A former federal appeals court judge appointed by Republican former President George H.W. Bush has told U.S. Senate leaders he is "deeply disturbed" by Republican-led attacks on Adeel Mangi, President Joe Biden’s nominee for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who would become the nation's first Muslim federal appeals court judge if confirmed.
Mangi, a New Jersey resident and partner at the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, has faced stiff Republican opposition that has put his Senate confirmation to the Philadelphia-based court into question.
During a December hearing on his nomination, Republican Judiciary Committee members prodded him about his views on the Israel-Hamas war and the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center. A conservative group later began running ads calling him "antisemitic."
Republican critics have focused on how Mangi formerly sat on an advisory board for Rutgers Law School's Center for Security, Race and Rights, whose director has taken stances supporting Palestinians and which hosted a 2021 event on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack featuring controversial speakers.
The White House and Senate Democratic leaders have called the attacks an Islamophic smear, and Lewis, who sat on the 3rd Circuit from 1992 to 1999, in his March 7 letter urged senators to reject the "baseless attacks."
"This is a nominee who should – and ordinarily would – have widespread bipartisan support," Lewis wrote. Yet he said Mangi was facing "absolutely unfounded" claims that he supports terrorism and is antisemitic.
Lewis, one of two Black appellate court judges appointed by Bush, said the courts need more diversity, but people from underrepresented communities will think twice about seeking a nomination if they believe they will be "unfairly attacked, stereotyped, and rejected by the Senate."
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to advance Mangi's nomination in January. But confirmation by the full Senate is uncertain. CNN on Thursday reported Democratic senators have privately warned the White House there are not enough votes to confirm him.
A digital ad campaign by the conservative Judicial Crisis Network launched in February in Montana, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. portraying Mangi as "antisemitic" had targeted Democratic Senators Jon Tester of Montana and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania in particular to convince them to vote no.
White House spokesman Andrew Bates in a statement said senior staff are calling senators daily on Mangi's behalf, adding no senator "should cave to hateful, undignified lies."
Read more:
US Senate panel narrowly advances Muslim federal appellate court nominee
Biden nominates union lawyer, Muslim American to U.S. appeals courts
