Jewish and Muslim Advocacy Groups Condemn GOP Line of Questioning of Pakistani American Judicial Nominee
- Adeel Mangi is President Biden’s nominee to U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
The White House has criticized attacks on Pakistani American lawyer Adeel Mangi, President Biden’s nominee to U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. If confirmed, the 46-year-old would become the first Muslim American to serve on a federal appellate court in U.S. history. He is slated to replace Judge Joseph Greenaway, Jr., who retired in June. He is the fourth appellate court judge named by Biden for the Third Circuit and the first from New Jersey.
Based in the James A. Byrne United States Courthouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit provides appellate review of cases tried in the United States District Courts within the geographic area of its jurisdiction, which includes Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Mangi’s nomination comes more than two years after Biden nominated Zahid N. Quraishi, the first Muslim to a federal district court, who was confirmed by the Senate for a judgeship in New Jersey. Biden nominated Quraishi, a federal magistrate judge and the son of Pakistani immigrants, in June 2021. He was confirmed by the Senate, 83 to 16.
Last month, the Democrat-led Judiciary Committee advanced Mangi’s nomination in an 11-10 vote along party lines. The confirmation process, however, has been stalled due to questioning from GOP lawmakers.
Three Senators in particular — Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tom Cotton of Arkansas — have used a “malicious” line of questioning about Mangi’s views on Israel, terrorism, and antisemitism, The White House noted, according to news reports. They have also scrutinized his role on the advisory board of the Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights. The research center that has hosted speakers critical of Israel and U.S. policy, “promotes antisemitism,” they alleged.” The White House has described these attacks as “cruel and Islamophobic.”
A group of House Republicans also penned a letter in January to President Biden urging Biden to “withdraw his nomination “immediately.” “While Mr. Mangi’s affiliation and financial support for the Center is cause for alarm, we also find it deeply troubling that he has failed to denounce the Center and its radical ideology. On numerous occasions in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Mangi was given ample opportunity to denounce examples of antisemitic rhetoric espoused by the Center. He failed to do so in his written responses and oral testimony to the committee every single time.”
Additionally, Judiciary Committee Republicans sent a letter to the Rutgers center, demanding that university president Jonathan Holloway and board chairman William Best turn over details about the program’s financial backing.
In response, Mangi denounced terrorism and antisemitism. He said the advisory board of the Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights “met once a year and focused on academic research on areas such as Religious Land Use and the Institutionalized Persons Act.” He reiterated that he “did not conduct research on events, speakers or people that have nothing to do with me.”
Despite Mangi’s stand, opposition from the Republican Senators has led to a broader attack on him. The Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), a conservative judicial advocacy organization launched a digital ad campaign blasting him. The ad titled “Stop Antisemitic Adeel,” highlights his “refusal in his hearing to condemn the hateful and anti-American views of the center, [Rutgers Law School Center for Security, Race, and Rights]” JCN said in a statement. “The ads airing in Montana and Pennsylvania also urge Senators Jon Tester and Bob Casey to vote ‘no’ on Mangi’s nomination to prevent him from a lifetime appointment on the federal court,” it adds. “While Mangi served on its board of advisors, the center taught students to hate Israel and America and to support global terrorism, blaming America for the 9/11 terrorist attacks — and most recently blaming Israel for the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7th.”
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Andrew Bates, in a statement sent to media outlets including NBC said “Mangi has been subjected to uniquely hostile attacks, precisely because of his Muslim faith.” Senators Cruz, Hawley, and Cotton “owe Mr. Mangi an apology.,” he added. “He represents the best of America, and when confirmed, Mr. Mangi will not only make history — he will make an outstanding judge.”
Several groups have supported Mangi and blasted the criticism against him. The American Jewish Committee (AJC) noted that it “has joined several U.S. Supreme Court briefs led by Mangi and find him to be an able jurist, a person of integrity, champion of pluralism, and adversary of discrimination against any group.” While, it is “ultimately the Senate that must determine Mangi’s fitness for the job,” it expects that “Senators will disregard the untoward implications underlying that unnecessary and unhelpful line of questioning. Elected officials should take a leadership role in calming the fears of and against American religious minorities, such as Jews and Muslims, not stoke them.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has also condemned the three GOP senators. “Singling out a Muslim judicial nominee and forcing him to answer ‘gotcha questions’ about the Middle East simply because of faith or because of his tangential connections to Muslims who comment on the Middle East is Islamophobic and un-American,” said CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell. “So is raising the hateful trope that presumptively assumes that Muslims are antisemitic. All U.S. senators should reject this nonsense and start assessing Muslim American judicial nominees based on their expertise and qualifications, like all other nominees.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which combats antisemitism, has also spoken out against the line of questioning. “During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Mangi was subjected to aggressive questioning unrelated to his professional expertise or qualifications,” ADL said. “Rather, he was forced to provide responses to a wide range of inquiries regarding his views on global strategic considerations in a manner that inappropriately politicized these issues and raised serious questions regarding pretext and bias.”
Mangi began his legal career there as an associate in 2000, became counsel in 2009, and was elevated to partnership in 2010. He received his LL.M. from Harvard Law School. He qualified as a Barrister and received his Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Legal Skills from the City University London Inns of Court School of Law, and his First Class Degree in Law from the University of Oxford, Pembroke College. He lives in North Jersey with his wife and two children.
He has written several amicus briefs in recent years that sought to block key initiatives of the previous administration, including a travel ban aimed at Muslim-majority countries, diverting federal funds to build a wall on the southern border, and an attempt to repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.