- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
The White House said such choices will continue to fulfil the president’s promise to ensure that the country’s courts reflect diversity.
By: Shubham Ghosh
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden announced this week his intent to nominate judge Sunil Harjani to a post of a federal district court judge in the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division in a push to diversify the judiciary.
Harjani, an Asian American, is among six judges across the nation to have been nominated by the US president.
The White House said such choices will continue to fulfil the president’s promise to ensure that the country’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of the greatest assets of the US as a country, both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.
It will be Biden’s 44th round of nominees for positions in the federal judiciary, taking the number of announced federal judicial nominees to 215, the White House said.
Pleased to see President Biden nominate Judge Sunil Harjani to serve on the federal bench in Illinois.@SenDuckworth and I recommended him for many reasons, including his strong qualifications and wealth of courtroom experience.
We look forward to supporting his nomination. pic.twitter.com/GQrv53MRZ3
— Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin) January 10, 2024
Harjani has been a US magistrate judge for the Northern District of Illinois since 2019. He had served as an assistant US attorney and deputy chief of the securities and commodities fraud section in the US attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois between 2008 and 2019.
Prior to that, he practised federal civil litigation as a senior counsel at the US Securities & Exchange Commission between 2004 and 2008 and as an associate at Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago from 2000 to 2001 and 2002 to 2004. He was also a law clerk for Judge Suzanne B. Colon on the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 2001-02.
He received his J.D. cum laude from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in 2000 and B.A. from Northwestern University three years before that.
US Senate majority whip Dick Durbin from Illinois, who is also the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and US senator Tammy Duckworth, also from Illinois, supported Harjani’s nomination.
Last November, the senators sent a letter to the White House recommending six candidates for Biden’s consideration for present and future vacancies for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division, including Judge Harjani.
After the president submits a nomination to the senate, it will be reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the nominee will eventually receive a vote in the committee. If the nomination is approved by the committee, the nominee will receive a vote by the entire senate.
