Biden nominates 1st Muslim as federal judge

U.S. President Joe Biden nominated on Tuesday Pakistani-American Zahid N. Quraishi as a federal judge, which makes him the first Muslim American to be nominated for this position.

Quraishi is nominated to be a federal judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

"This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession," the White House said in a statement.

"Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people — and together they represent the broad persity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong," it asserted in the statement.

Accordingly, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Senator Corey Booker and Senator Bob Menendez hailed Biden’s move.

The American-Pakistani Public Affairs Committee also thanked President Biden for the initiative.

In 2019, Quraishi was appointed to be a magistrate judge in the District of New Jersey by the judges he now seeks to join on the bench.

Furthermore, Quraishi, an army veteran, was a military prosecutor with the JAG Corps and did deployments in Iraq in 2004 and 2006, according to his Rutgers bio page.

He later worked with the Department of Homeland Security then served as a federal prosecutor in the District of New Jersey.