Shanker was among 32 nominated by Trump in the final days of his presidency.
President Joe Biden has withdrawn the nomination of Indian American lawyer Vijay Shanker to be an Associate Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals made by his predecessor Donald Trump.
The White House Thursday informed the Senate of withdrawal of Shanker’s nomination along with 31 others, 17 of them for judges, made by Trump in the final days of his presidency.
If confirmed, Shanker would have served for a term of 15 years. But the chamber did not take up any of the 32 nominations while Trump was still in office and the Republican party had the majority.
When Trump nominated him on January 3, Shanker was serving as Senior Litigation Counsel in the Department of Justice, Criminal Division, and as Deputy Chief of its Appellate Section.
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He investigated and prosecuted violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and related offenses and oversaw 30 lawyers who handle federal criminal appeals and draft Supreme Court briefs.
He was simultaneously an adjunct associate professor at the Washington College of Law of the American University. Trump had first announced Shaker’s nomination last June.
Before joining the Department of Justice in 2012, Shanker was in private practice with the Washington, DC, offices of Mayer Brown, LLC and Covington and Burling, LLP.
Upon graduation from law school, Shanker served as a law clerk to Judge Chester J. Straub on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Shanker completed his bachelors, cum laude, from Duke University and his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as a Notes Editor for the Virginia Law Review and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.