President Biden to Nominate First Muslim to a Circuit Court (2)

President Joe Biden announced plans to nominate the first Muslim to serve on a federal appeals court along with a top labor union lawyer to another circuit court seat.

Adeel Mangi, a Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler litigation partner who was born in Karachi, Pakistan, will be nominated to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the White House said Wednesday.

Mangi would bring to the position more than two decades of experience as a litigator and trial attorney. In May, he won a $2 billion verdict in a trade secrets case following a seven-week trial on behalf of software company Appian Corp. He is also known for litigating high-profile religious discrimination disputes.

Ani Zonneveld, founder and president of Muslims for Progressive Values, where Mangi served on the board, described Mangi as “emotionally mature” and “even-keeled in temperament.”

“He’s a very fair-minded man. He just so happens to be Muslim,” Zonneveld said.

Biden has prioritized nominees that would bring experiential, racial, and gender diversity to the federal bench. The US is home to an estimated 3.45 million Muslims, according to the Pew Research Center. The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit includes New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) described Mangi as “a fixture in the New Jersey legal community and “a person of integrity and deep conviction with an unflinching commitment to fairness and equality.”

He was part of the Patterson Belknap team that defended Johnson & Johnson in an antitrust lawsuit brought by Walgreen Co. and Kroger Co. accusing the pharmaceutical giant of inflating prices for Remicade, its anti-inflammatory drug. The Third Circuit in 2020 rejected J&J’s bid to compel arbitration of the suit by Walgreens and Kroger.

Discrimination Cases

Mangi has previously represented Muslim communities in religious discrimination disputes as part of his pro bono work. In one such case, he represented an Islamic group in its 2016 lawsuit against a New Jersey planning board for blocking construction of a Mosque, according to a complaint filed in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey. The case was resolved in 2017 in a $3.25 million settlement to the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge.

Mohammad Ali Chaudry, president of the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, credited the favorable outcome for the organization — which completed construction of the mosque in March — to Mangi’s legal strategy and attention to detail.

Chaudry said the nomination is significant for the Muslim community in New Jersey.

“Every Muslim in New Jersey should be and will be very proud once he’s confirmed. We would feel that our community is represented in the legal system and throughout the rest of society,” Chaudry said.

Mangi’s nomination comes as prominent Muslim Americans have criticized the president for supporting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza that followed the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Mangi is Biden’s fourth Muslim judicial nominee put forth by Biden. Judge Zahid Quraishi was confirmed to the District of New Jersey in 2021 and Nusrat Choudhury joined the Eastern District of New York earlier this year. Mustafa Kasubhai’s nomination to the District of Oregon is pending in the Senate.

The White House also announced Wednesday that Biden intends to nominate Nicole Berner, the SEIU’s general counsel, to a seat on the Fourth Circuit. Berner, who previously worked as a staff attorney for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and a Jenner & Block associate, would be the first openly LGBTQ lawyer on the Fourth Circuit, according to the White House.

The White House also announced nominations for two vacancies at the US District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. Cristal Brisco is currently a superior court judge in South Bend and Gretchen Lund is a superior court judge in Goshen.

More than half of outstanding judicial vacancies are in states like Indiana with two Republican senators, who have the authority to block nominees under the Senate’s blue-slip process.

—Mary Anne Pazanowski contributed reporting.