Judge Pick With Disability Raises Hopes for a Group Often Unseen

The nominee for a Washington federal court would be one of only a handful of federal judges open about living with a disability, expanding President Joe Biden’s push to make the judiciary more accurately reflect the US population.

Jamal N. Whitehead, a Seattle trial lawyer who uses a prosthetic leg, is the Biden administration’s first judicial nominee with a known disability. He is awaiting a Senate committee vote on his nomination to the US District Court for the Western District of Washington. Judges with disabilities say his nomination is part of setting the composition of the federal bench ...