Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada late Tuesday became the first Democrat to publicly announce she will not support President Joe Biden's nomination of Adeel Mangi to become the nation's first Muslim federal appeals court judge, endangering his ability to win Senate confirmation.
Mangi, a New Jersey resident and partner at the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, has faced stiff Republican opposition that has jeopardized his nomination to the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Several law enforcement groups, including the National Sheriffs' Association and the National Association of Police Organizations, have come out opposed to Mangi, citing his association with the Alliance of Families for Justice.
Mangi serves as an advisory board member to the New York-based criminal justice reform group, which advocates on behalf of families affected by mass incarceration.
Republicans and the law enforcement groups opposed to Mangi have portrayed it as an association that advocates for "cop-killers to be freed from prison," as the head of the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association put it in a letter.
Cortez Masto in a statement called Mangi's affiliation with the group "deeply concerning."
"This organization has sponsored a fellowship in the name of Kathy Boudin, a member of the domestic terrorist organization Weather Underground, and advocated for the release of individuals convicted of killing police officers," she said. I cannot support this nominee."
Her opposition narrows the path for Mangi to win confirmation in the Senate, which has a 51-49 Democratic majority.
CNN last week reported that Senate Democrats have privately warned the White House that Mangi does not have enough support to be confirmed.
The White House has stood by the nominee and has been calling senators on his behalf. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The White House and Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin of Illinois have said Mangi is an exceptional nominee who has been subjected to Islamophobic smears by Republican opponents.
During a December hearing on his nomination, Republican Judiciary Committee members prodded Mangi about his views on the Israel-Hamas war and the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
A conservative group, the Judicial Crisis Network, later began running ads calling him "antisemitic" and targeted its campaign at convincing Democratic Senators Jon Tester of Montana and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania in particular to vote no. Neither have said how they will vote.
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