Jan 20, 2022: According to a report by Al Jazeera, the White House said Wednesday that US President Joe Biden has nominated the first Muslim American woman to be a judge in a federal court in the United States, after announcing a list of diverse court nominations.

Nusrat Jahan Chaudhry, a Bangladeshi-born civil rights lawyer, will serve in a federal district court in New York if approved by the US Senate.

“A nominee who would be the first Bangladeshi-American, the first Muslim-American woman, and only second Muslim American person to serve as a federal judge,” the White House said in a statement on Wednesday.

Chaudhry is currently serving as the legal director of the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a civil rights group. She has previously held various positions in the organization, including as Deputy Director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program in New York.

The ACLU of Illinois described Choudhury’s nomination as “historic”, but noted that the organisation does not formally endorse judicial or political nominees.

She has been involved in a number of civil rights cases, including one challenging the federal government’s no-fly list and the New York Police Department’s oversight of the city’s Muslim community.

In September last year, Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer recommended Choudhury to serve on the federal bench in New York, calling her an “expert in civil rights and liberties”.

U.S. federal courts oversee the prosecution of federal crimes and civil cases. They also have the ability to judicially review state and federal laws and block what they consider to be violations of the US Constitution. All U.S. federal cases begin in the district courts, and can be appealed to in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

The US Supreme Court – the country’s highest court – is the third and final level of appeal in the federal court system. The president appoints all federal judges, but nominees need to be confirmed by a simple majority in the Senate.

On Wednesday, the White House highlighted the diversity of Biden’s court nominees, including Ariana Freeman, a federal public defender who will serve as the first African-American woman to serve on the Philadelphia-based Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

If confirmed, Chaudhry would become the second Muslim US federal judge to be nominated by the Senate last year after Zahid N. Qureshi was nominated to serve as a district court judge in New Jersey.

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