Biden's latest judicial picks include a voting rights lawyer nominated to the 2nd Circuit
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President Joe Biden’s latest round of judicial picks includes Myrna Pérez, a voting rights lawyer nominated to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New York.
Biden announced the nomination of Pérez and four others Tuesday in a fourth round of picks that brings his total nominees to 24, according to a White House press release noted by How Appealing.
Law.com, Law360 and the New York Times are among the publications with coverage.
If Pérez is confirmed, she would be the only Latina currently serving on the 2nd Circuit. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the first Hispanic woman to serve on the 2nd Circuit.
Pérez is the director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Program at the New York University School of Law. A graduate of Columbia Law School, she has been a lecturer-in-law at Columbia, an adjunct professor of clinical law at the NYU School of Law and a civil rights fellow at the firm Relman Colfax, then known as Relman, Dane & Colfax.
Biden also made these nominations to federal district courts:
• Jia M. Cobb to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She is a partner and litigator at civil rights firm Relman Colfax and a former trial attorney for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. If confirmed, she would be the second Black female attorney who is actively serving on the D.C. district court.
• Sarala Vidya Nagala to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. She is the deputy chief of the major crimes unit at the U.S. attorney’s office in Connecticut. If confirmed, she would be the first judge of South Asian descent to serve on the Connecticut district court.
• Sarah A.L. Merriam to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. She is currently a federal magistrate judge and formerly an assistant federal public defender.
• Omar A. Williams to the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Williams is a superior court judge in Connecticut who was formerly an assistant public defender in the state.
According to the White House press release, the nominees “continue to fulfill the president’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country—both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.”
