Conservatives Escalate Pressure Against Muslim Appellate Pick

Senate Republicans and other conservatives are intensifying their opposition to President Joe Biden’s nominee to become the first Muslim federal appellate judge as the White House condemns their criticisms as “Islamophobic attacks.”

The Judicial Crisis Network has joined GOP lawmakers in a bid to upend Adeel Mangi’s nomination to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit over his ties to a law school group they say hosted events with radical speakers.

JCN has launched a digital ad campaign to pressure Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) to oppose the nomination. Their seats are considered possible pickups for Republicans in November in the narrowly divided chamber, and the media push is running in their states.

“Tell Jon Tester to vote no on giving antisemite Adeel Mangi a lifetime position on our courts,” one ad video‘s narrator says.

Tester is the lone congressional Democrat from Montana, which went heavily for Donald Trump in presidential balloting. Casey hails from Pennsylvania, a battleground state.

A spokesperson for Tester told Bloomberg Government that the senator is “reviewing the nomination and taking feedback from Montanans.” Casey’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The conservative backlash against Mangi erupted after his confirmation hearing when Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans demanded he share his personal views on the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, and the Sept. 11 attacks.

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) and other GOP panel members have spotlighted Mangi’s prior membership on the advisory board of the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers Law School, which held a controversial event commemorating the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in 2021. Conservatives also say the center has platformed anti-Israel and antisemitic speech.

Mangi said in response that he only advised the center on academic research issues for a board that meets once a year, and that he was neither involved or aware of the events characterized by Republicans as radical.

He also repeatedly condemned terrorism, antisemitism, and the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel as “a horror involving the deaths of innocent civilians.”

The White House condemned the “outrageous and undignified attacks,” according to a statement from spokesperson Andrew Bates. The Biden administration, the statement said, “stands 100% behind” Mangi and called for swift Senate confirmation.

“Mr. Mangi has been subjected to uniquely hostile attacks, in a way other nominees have not—precisely because of his Muslim faith,” Bates said.

Bringing Mangi up for a floor vote should be an immediate priority for Senate Democrats, said Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the Fair Courts Program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

The more time that passes, the more “these attacks may continue to fester,” she said.

It’s unclear if Mangi has the votes to be confirmed with pressure being applied to potentially vulnerable lawmakers.

Senate Democrats have relied on their 51-49 majority to confirm judges, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has yet to tee up floor action on Mangi. He advanced out of the Judiciary Committee by a one-vote margin in a party line tally.