Pakistani-American Zahid Quraishi has become the first Muslim in US history to have been named for the status of a federal judge by US President Joe Biden.
If endorsed, Quraishi will be the first Muslim American to work as a federal district judge.
President Biden named judge Quraishi for a federal judge on the US District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Quraishi was selected in 2019 to be a magistrate judge in the District of New Jersey by the panel of judges he now gets to join on the bench.
An army expert, Quraishi was a military prosecutor with the JAG Corps and did implementations in Iraq in 2004 and 2006, according to his Rutgers bio sheet.
A magistrate judge is not exactly deemed to be a member of the federal bench the same way a district court or circuit judge is because the position is not defined in the Bill’s Article III and magistrate judges are not appointed by the president.
Magistrate judges are appointed by law to supervise certain affairs and may also be assigned tasks by bona fide district judges.
“This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession,” the White House told in a statement about all the nominees.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Senator Corey Booker and Senator Bob Menendez praised the US President’s move.
The American-Pakistani Public Affairs Committee be grateful to President Biden for the proposal.
