Pakistani-American would be first Muslim US federal judge after Biden nomination

Pakistani-American Zahid Quraishi has become the first Muslim in US history to have been nominated for the position of a federal judge by US President Joe Biden.

If confirmed, Quraishi will be the first Muslim American to serve as a federal district judge.

President Biden nominated judge Quraishi to be a federal judge on the US District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Quraishi was appointed in 2019 to be a magistrate judge in the District of New Jersey by the judges he now seeks to join on the bench.

An army veteran, Quraishi was a military prosecutor with the JAG Corps and did deployments in Iraq in 2004 and 2006, according to his Rutgers bio page.

A magistrate judge is not technically considered a member of the federal bench the same way a district court or circuit judge is because the position is not outlined in the Constitution's Article III and magistrate judges are not appointed by the president.

Magistrate judges are assigned by statute to oversee some matters and may also be delegated tasks by bona fide district judges.

"This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession," the White House said in a statement about all the nominees.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, Senator Corey Booker and Senator Bob Menendez praised the US President's move.

The American-Pakistani Public Affairs Committee thanked President Biden for the initiative.