Meng urges Biden to appoint country's first Muslim judges to federal bench if elected
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Rep. Grace Meng speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, May 27. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
By David Brand
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng is using her influence among national Democrats to push for the appointment of Muslim judges to the federal bench for the first time if her party wins back the White House.
Meng, the vice chair of the Democratic Party, delivered a letter to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign Oct. 9 asking him and running mate Kamala Harris to publicly commit to the appointment of Muslim judges to the federal judiciary should they win next month’s presidential election. The letter was drafted by the Muslim Bar Association of New York and signed by the South Asian Bar Association of New York.
“The judiciary today does not reflect the America it presides over,” the letter states. “As of 2020, there is to our knowledge no appointed member of the federal judiciary who identifies as Muslim, nor has there ever been.”
In their letter, Meng and the two legal organizations cite the nearly 400-year history of Muslims in the American colonies and the United States. The first Muslims in what is the now the U.S. were trafficked to the colonies as slaves stolen from Africa.
Today, roughly 3.5 million Americans identify as Muslim, according to a 2018 Pew report.
Representation is crucial as Americans demonstrate for equity and against discrimination, including anti-Islamic prejudice, Meng and the bar associations told Biden.
“Your nominations come at a turning point for our nation, where the dual crisis of a global pandemic and re-awakened demands for racial justice and equity, require us to evaluate how our institutions — including the federal judiciary — treat and serve all communities,” they wrote.
At the local level, just a handful of people who identify as Muslim have served on the bench in New York City and state.
No person who identifies as Muslim has ever served on the bench in Queens, according to the South Asian Indo Carribean Bar Association of Queens. Two South Asian judges in Queens are both Hindu, the organization said.
The SAICBA-Q represents attorneys and judges of diverse religious backgrounds, with several who identify as Muslim.
A few local lawmakers have joined the effort to nominate, appoint and elect a more diverse judiciary in the state, specifically calling for Muslim judges and a judiciary that represents New Yorkers of South Asian and Middle Eastern descent.
State Sen. Jessica Ramos voted against Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s nominees for Court of Claims, citing a lack of diversity in July. In a speech on the Senate floor, Ramos said she worked with the SAICBA-Q to identify qualified candidates.
State Sen. Luís Sepulveda has also championed the work of the SAICBA-Q to get more South Asian judges in general appointed to the bench.
