These Indian American judges serve in top legal jobs from east to west coast.
By Revathi Siva Kumar
Indian Americans have made waves in all fields from academics to law. And from Democrat Bill Clinton to Republican Donald Trump, American presidents have tapped them to fill crucial judicial posts.
From Chandigarh-born Sri Srinivasan serving on what is perceived to be the nation’s second most powerful court in Washington to San Franciscan Vince Chhabria, they are setting new benchmarks.
Here meet some of the top Indian legal achievers:
Sri Srinivasan
Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
A trailblazer, Srinivasan, 52, is used to making history. Raised in Lawrence, Kansas, he first did it when he became a judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in May 2013 as a nominee of then President Barack Obama.
He did it again in February when he became the first person of South Asian descent to be elevated as Chief Judge of the court seen as a stepping stone to the US Supreme Court.
Srinivasan recently acknowledged at a gathering that “it’s natural to doubt whether you belong and whether you’re worthy, but you do belong and you are worthy.”
Armed with a BA from Stanford University, a JD from Stanford Law School, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the intrepid lawyer took 25 cases before the nation’s highest court.
He also taught appellate advocacy at Harvard Law School and conducted a seminar on civil rights statutes as well as the Supreme Court at Georgetown University Law Center.
Read more about Judge Srinivasan here.
Neomi Jehangir Rao
Circuit Judge, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Born to Parsi parents in 1973, Rao was the second Indian American to join the powerful DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
Nominated by President Trump last year, she recently hit the headlines when she wrote the 2-1 majority opinion, asking a lower court judge to drop a case against his former National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn.
Before joining the court, Rao, 45, served as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the White House Office of Management and Budget, from 2017 to 2019.
In the federal court, she took the seat vacated by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. “She’s going to be fantastic – great person,” Trump said.
Read more about Judge Neomi Rao here
Amul Roger Thapar
Circuit Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Appointed by President Trump as a circuit judge of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati with jurisdiction over federal courts in four states, he assumed office in May 2017.
The first South Asian federal judge in America, Thapar was Trump’s first Court of Appeals appointment and his second judicial appointment.
A former District Judge of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, he is frequently discussed as a short-lister for the Supreme Court.
Thapar was born in Troy, Michigan, to immigrant parents and raised in Toledo, Ohio. After receiving a BS degree from Boston College in 1991, he earned a JD from UC Berkeley School of Law in 1994.
Amit Priyavadan Mehta
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Appointed by Obama as a District judge for the District of Columbia, Gujarat-born, Mehta, 49, began his term on Dec 19, 2014.
Raised in Reisterstown, Maryland, Mehta received his BA degree in 1993 from Georgetown University and a JD in 1997 from the University of Virginia School of Law, graduating Order of the Coif.
In July 2019, he ruled in favor of pharmaceutical firms, blocking a Trump administration rule that required drug makers to put prices in television ads, mainly to lower the cost of prescription medications.
Off the record, Mehta is a softball coach, and enjoys hip-hop music and lyrics, especially Jay-Z, Kanye West, Drake, and Eminem.
Vince Chhabria
District Judge in the Northern District of California
An Obama appointee, Chhabria, 50, has served as District Judge in the Northern District of California since 2014. He was earlier a Deputy City Attorney at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.
Chhabria’s ruling favoring IMDb.com in a case against parties that sought to bar it from posting the birth dates of actors, stands out.
In 2016, the US Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation appointed him to preside over the coordinated and consolidated pretrial proceedings for all product liability lawsuits filed against Monsanto.
After receiving a BA degree in 1991 from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Chhabria got a JD in 1998 from the UC Berkeley School of Law, graduating Order of the Coif.
From 2005 to 2013, he served in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, finally as Deputy City Attorney for Government Litigation and also the Co-Chief of Appellate Litigation.
Vijay Shanker
Judge, DC Court of Appeals
A nominee of President Trump, Vijay Shanker was confirmed by the US Senate to be a judge on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in December 2022.
Previously, he was a Senior Litigation Counsel in the Department of Justice, Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. Shanker is best known for his investigation and prosecution of violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related offenses.
Shanker, who has argued almost 60 federal appeals, has won several awards, including the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award and the Roger & Madeleine Traynor Prize for “the graduate who has produced the best-written work.”
He was also an adjunct associate professor at the Washington College of Law of the American University.
Moxila A. Upadhyaya
US Magistrate Judge
The Gujarat-born Upadhyaya was appointed United States Magistrate Judge on September 7, 2022. He was appointed by active district judges of the court and serves an eight-year term. She holds the authority to conduct preliminary proceedings in criminal cases, including arraignments, among other essential duties.
Upadhyaya also received a BA with honors in Latin from the University of Missouri before obtaining a J.D., cum laude, from the American University’s Washington College of Law, where she earned distinctions for her trial work in the Criminal Justice Clinic and served as a member of the Administrative Law Review.
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Sarita Komatireddy
Additionally,Trump nominated Saritha Komatireddy to be a judge of the federal court in the Eastern District of New York. But she did not receive the Senate confirmation.
A prosecutor, who also teaches at the Columbia Law School, she is currently the Deputy Chief of General Crimes in the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District.
Before that, she was Acting Deputy Chief, International Narcotics and Money Laundering (June, 2018 – January, 2019) and Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Coordinator (2016-2019).
Komatireddy was also a counsel to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.
(Updated August 3, 2023)
3 Comments
Honorable Judge Rena Van Tine was the first Asian American judge appointed in the U.S. and first female Indian American judge in June 2011. She is currently serving in Cook County in IL. For details check Proclamation from Senator Durbin of IL. announced in June 2011. We have come a long way since then!
Finally the Gupta’s are making a name for themselves
The article mixes levels of judicial authority. The highest level is the Supreme Court followed by the Circuit Court, District Court, International Court and all the other courts. And so, Circuit Court Judges Srinivasan (Obama), Thapar (Trump), Rao (Trump) have the largest jurisdictions. Then District Court Judges Chhabria (Obama), Mehta (Obama), Komatireddy (Trump). And while Shanker (Trump) was nominated as judge of the DC Court of Appeals, this is an important but not a federal court.