Indian-American Rupa Ranga Puttagunta among 11 nominees for court vacancies in the US

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden has nominated Indian-American Rupa Ranga Puttagunta as a federal judge, among 10 other diverse picks for top judicial positions.

Stressing on diversity, Biden's list includes three black women, a Muslim American and an Asian American and Pacific Islander.

If confirmed by the US Senate, Judge Puttagunta would be the first Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) woman to serve on the US District Court for the District of DC, the White House said.

She currently serves as an Administrative Judge for the DC Rental Housing Commission.

Prior to joining the Commission in 2019, Judge Puttagunta was a solo practitioner from 2013 to 2019, representing indigent criminal defendants in trial and on appeal.

Before opening her own practice, Judge Puttagunta practised family and appellate law at Delaney McKinney, LLP from 2012 to 2013.

While working on domestic relations matters in private practice, Judge Puttagunta also provided hundreds of hours of pro bono legal services by volunteering at DC Superior Court's family court self-help center and attorney negotiator programme and representing victims of domestic violence in DC Superior Court.

She began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge William M Jackson of the DC Superior Court from 2008 to 2010, as well as the Senior Judges of the DC court of appeals from 2010 to 2011.

Judge Puttagunta received her Juris Doctor degree from Ohio State Moritz College of Law in 2007.

Zahid N Quraishi, a New Jersey magistrate judge of Pakistani heritage, would be the nation’s first Muslim American to serve on a federal district court.

According to the Rutgers Law School website, Quraishi was appointed as a US magistrate judge for the district of New Jersey in the Trenton Vicinage on June 3, 2019. He is the first Asian American to serve on the federal bench in New Jersey and received his law degree from the Newark law institution, it added.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is African American, was nominated to serve on the US court of appeals for the district of Columbia circuit, which is known to handle major cases. If confirmed by the Senate, she will replace Merrick Garland, who is now attorney general, the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

Jackson, 50, is regularly mentioned as a potential Supreme Court judge some day. She would be the first black woman to get a seat on the nine-member court.

Tiffany Cunningham was named for the US court of appeals for the federal circuit while Candace Jackson-Akiwumi was nominated for the US court of appeals for the seventh circuit.

The 11 nominations as a whole “represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong,” the president said in a statement after announcing the 11 nominations.

Under the US constitution, the president nominates people to serve on the Supreme Court and other federal courts for life, and the Senate votes on whether to confirm them.

Judge Florence Pan would be the first Asian-American judge to serve on the US district court for the district of Columbia, the White House said.