Indian American Vijay Shanker has the Rare Distinction of Being Nominated by Both Presidents Biden and Trump

President Joe Biden has nominated Vijay Shanker to the D.C. Court of Appeals, the White House announced last week. The Indian American is among seven others named in the 23rd round of nominees for federal judicial positions, the White House announcement said.

Shanker currently serves as the Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, where he has worked since 2005. He was previously Counselor and Acting Deputy Chief of Staff to the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division and Senior Litigation Counsel in the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section at the Department of Justice.

According to The Washington Post, the judgeships in the D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals are federally appointed positions. “But nominees for the D.C. courts go through a more complicated nomination process than federal judges across the country,” The Post report said. The judges in the District are first selected by the city’s Judicial Nomination Commission, which then sends its selections to the president, who nominates one and sends that person to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for consideration.

Shanker was first nominated to the D.C. Court of Appeals by former President Donald Trump in June 2020. His nomination was returned to the president at the sine die adjournment of the U.S. Senate on Jan. 3, 2021, but he was renominated the same day. However, a month later, his nomination was withdrawn.

During his career, Shanker has briefed and argued almost 60 federal appeals, including four en banc rehearings. As the senior litigation counsel in the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, Shanker investigates and prosecutes violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related offenses and advises attorneys and leadership on a range of legal issues and litigation matters, according to his profile on the Judicial Nomination Commission.

He served in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, first as Senior Counsel and then as Acting Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to the Assistant Attorney General.

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Shanker has been awarded the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award, the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, and the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.

Before joining the Department of Justice in 2012, Shanker was in private practice with the Washington, DC, offices of Mayer Brown, LLC and Covington and Burling, LLP. Upon graduation from law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Chester J. Straub in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in public policy studies, cum laude, from Duke University. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was named to the Order of the Coif and served as a Notes Editor on the Virginia Law Review. He was awarded the Roger & Madeleine Traynor Prize for “the graduate who has produced the best-written work” and also the Law School Alumni Association Best Note Award.