BIDEN NOMINATES PAKISTANI-AMERICAN AS FIRST MUSLIM FEDERAL JUDGE

Wed 31 March 2021:

US President Joe Biden has nominated Pakistani-American Zahid Quraishi as a federal judge. This is the first time in US history that a Muslim American has been nominated for the position.

If confirmed by the Senate, Zahid Quraishi will become the first Muslim to serve in that position in New Jersey.

Biden’s 11 judicial nominees are highly diversified, including three Black women for circuit courts; the first Asian American and Pacific Islander female for US District Court for the District of Washington, D.C. and the first woman of color to serve as a federal judge for the District of Maryland.

“This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession,” Biden said. “Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people – and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong.”

Quraishi, who is of Pakistani ancestry, was also the first Muslim to serve as US Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey in 2019.

Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, Quraishi received his bachelor’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 1997 and his Juris Doctor from Rutgers Law School in 2000.

Quraishi was appointed in 2019 to be a magistrate judge in the District of New Jersey by the judges he now seeks to join on the bench. He is of Pakistani descent and got his law degree from Rutgers Law School, where he currently serves as an adjunct professor.

An army veteran, Quraishi was a military prosecutor with the JAG Corps and did deployments in Iraq in 2004 and 2006, according to his Rutgers bio page.

He later worked with the Department of Homeland Security then served as a federal prosecutor in the District of New Jersey.