This week, U.S. President Joe Biden sent a list of nominees, to fill 11 vacant judicial positions, to the Senate for confirmation.  

The nominees include Indian American Rupa Ranga Puttagunta (in photo), for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (D.C.), and Pakistani American Zahid N Quraishi, who, if confirmed, would be the first Muslim American federal judge in U.S. history.

Since 2019, Puttagunta, 41, has served as an Administrative Judge for the D.C. Rental Housing Commission where she resolves appeals. She also assists with the Commission’s rulemaking function, including issuing, amending, and rescinding regulations. Puttagunta is the first Asian American to serve on the U.S. District Court for Washington D.C.

Earlier, she served on the Criminal Justice Act panels of the D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals. From 2013 to 2019, she was a solo practitioner, representing indigent criminal defendants in trial and on appeal. Before opening her practice, Puttagunta practiced family and appellate law at Delaney McKinney. She volunteered hundreds of hours at D.C. Superior Court’s Family Court Self-Help Center and Attorney Negotiator Program, representing victims of domestic violence.

Puttagunta serves on the Domestic Violence Resource Project’s board and the Law School Outreach Committee of the National Association of Women Judges.

She began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge William M. Jackson of the D.C. Superior Court. She received her J.D. from Ohio State Moritz College of Law in 2007 and her B.A. from Vassar College, New York, in 2002.

Biden also nominated Zahid N. Quraishi to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The Pakistani American is a magistrate judge on the same court, a position he was appointed to in 2019.
 
Earlier, Quraishi, 46, was a partner at Riker Danzig, handling white collar criminal defense and investigations. From 2008 to 2018, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. Earlier jobs include as a counsel at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; U.S. Army prosecutor, achieving the rank of Captain, and serving in Iraq; and working in private practice.

Quraishi clerked for Judge Edwin H. Stern, of the Superior Court of New Jersey. He received his J.D. in 2000 from Rutgers Law School, Newark, and his B.A. in 1997 from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York.
 

 (Photo of Rupa Ranga Puttagunta is from her LinkedIn profile)

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