The Great Lakes State has never had a federal judge of South Asian heritage, and the president broke another barrier with his selection of a Latino judge for the Court of Federal Claims.
Shalina Kuma and Armando Bonilla were nominated for federal judgeships Wednesday. (Images courtesy of Oakland County, Michigan, and the University of Virginia School of Law via Courthouse News)WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden announced eight new nominations to the judicial branch Wednesday, bringing his tally to 32 since taking office. Keeping in step with Biden’s promise to diversify the federal bench, the latest round consists mostly of women and individuals of various racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Nominated this morning to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan is Chief Judge Shalina Kumar from the Oakland County Sixth Circuit Court. Before taking the bench in 2007, Kumar worked as a civil litigator from 1997 to 2007 after graduating from the University of Michigan in 1993 and the University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law in 1996. If confirmed, she would be the first South Asian federal judge in the state. Reports indicate that Kumar is Indian American.
President Biden also nominated Judge Jane Beckering from the Michigan Court of Appeals to sit on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Beckering has held her state court office since 2007. Back in April, the judge co-signed a ruling that advanced a Black man's suit against a bar said to have enabled a racist attack.
Tuesday's slate of nominations also tackles vacancies on the Court of Federal Claims.
For one posting, Biden tapped Armando Bonilla, the vice president of ethics and investigations at Capitol One who previously spent more than 20 years in a variety of roles at the Department of Justice. If confirmed, Bonilla would be the first Latino judge on the court.
Biden tapped Carolyn Lerner for the second Federal Claims Court opening. Lerner has been the chief circuit mediator for the U.S. Courts of the D.C. Circuit since 2017. She was previously an adjunct law professor at Georgetown University Law Center and George Washington University Law School, and co-founded the civil rights and employment law firm Heller, Huron, Chertkof, Lerner, Simon & Salzman.
Toby Heytens, a former law professor from Virginia, was nominated Tuesday to the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. In 2018, Heytens was appointed solicitor general of Virginia by the state’s attorney general, Mark Herring. Earlier this month, Heytens argued before the Virginia Supreme Court for the removal of a statue in Richmond commemorating Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Biden additionally selected two for Eastern District of Virginia vacancies. One of the judicial nominees is Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Tolliver Giles, a member of the Attorney General’s Transnational Organized Crime Task Force.
The second Eastern District of Virginia nominee is Michael Nachmanoff, who has served as a U.S. magistrate judge in the same area since 2015.
Biden rounded out Tuesday's picks by elevating Sean Staples at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where Staples currently serves as a magistrate judge in the Criminal and Domestic Violence Divisions. Staples was an attorney with the Children’s Law Center until 2013.
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