WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — President Joe Biden released his first slate of 11 federal judicial nominations Wednesday morning, including three Black women for federal circuit court vacancies, a Muslim American and an Asian American and Pacific Islander.
“This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession,” Biden said in a statement that emphasized their “broad diversity of background experience and perspective.”
The nominees, which include nine women, must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The Black women nominated for federal circuit court vacancies include Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Tiffany Cunningham for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Zahid N. Quraishi, a New Jersey magistrate judge, would be the nation’s first Muslim American to serve on a federal district court.
Judge Florence Pan would be the first Asian-American judge to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the White House said in a statement.
The full list includes:
- Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- Tiffany Cunningham: Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- Candace Jackson-Akiwumi: Nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- Judge Deborah Boardman: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
- Judge Lydia Griggsby: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
- Julien Neals: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
- Judge Florence Y. Pan: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
- Judge Zahid N. Quraishi: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
- Regina Rodriguez: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of Colorado
- Margaret Strickland: Nominee for the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico
- Judge Rupa Ranga Puttagunta: Nominee for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
