The Senate Has Just Confirmed The First Muslim American Federal Judge In U.S. History

A son of Pakistani immigrants has just been confirmed by the Senate as the first Muslim American federal judge in U.S. history.

Zahid Quraishi was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by a vote of 81-16 on Thursday.

“It’s a historic appointment as the first Muslim Article 3 judge in history. He just has this long, very enviable record of public service,” Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond, told NPR.

Quraishi’s father, Nisar, emigrated to New York from Pakistan in 1970. The elder Quraishi opened a medical practice and continued seeing patients until he died of complications from coronavirus in April 2020.

He served two tours in Iraq

Quraishi, a graduate of Rutgers Law School, was in an active law practice but gave that up to join the Army after the 9/11 attacks, Tobias said.

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