Adeel Mangi: Biden nominates Pakistani-American to appeals courts

President Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated a Pakistani-American attorney to become a federal appeals court judge as part of a continued effort by the White House to diversify the federal judiciary.

Biden nominated Nicole Berner, the general counsel of Service Employees International Union, to the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals and New Jersey attorney Adeel Mangi to join the Philadelphia-based 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Pakistan-born Adeel Mangi began his legal career in 2000 at Patterson Belknap and in 2010 became a partner. His cases include a successful legal challenge on behalf of Muslim communities in New Jersey seeking to open mosques in Bernards Township and Bayonne.

The only two other Muslim Americans to serve as Biden appointed life-tenured federal judges to trial courts, and a fourth’s district court nomination is pending.

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Biden also on Wednesday nominated three new district court judges in Oregon and Indiana, a state with two Republican senators, whose support will be needed for the two nominees to win Senate confirmation under the Senate’s “blue slip” custom.

The Democratic president has so far won Senate confirmation for 154 lifetime federal judicial nominees, the vast majority of whom have been women or people of color.

His decision to nominate Berner heeds calls from progressive advocates for the White House to appoint more pro-union labor lawyers to the bench at a time of rising unionization efforts nationwide and strikes in major industries.