Indian-American Vanita Gupta to step down as US Associate Attorney General

Vanita Gupta, the highest-ranking Indian-American in the Department of Justice, will step down as the Associate Attorney General of the US in February 2024.

Gupta, the first woman of colour to serve as the Department of Justice's third-highest ranking official, led its "Reproductive Rights Taskforce to defend the reproductive freedoms that are protected by federal law," a statement by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said on Thursday.

The 49-year-old has served as the Associate Attorney General since confirmation by the Senate in 2021 and will depart from the post in February 2024, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Acknowledging Gupta's "extraordinary service", Garland said that her commitment to the "pursuit of justice and relentless focus on bringing people together to find common ground made her an incredibly effective leader in dealing with some of the most complex challenges facing the American people."

"She played an integral role in the department's efforts to combat violent crime and gun violence and to support the victims of crime," Garland was quoted as saying in the Justice Department statement.

The highest-ranking Indian-American in the department, Gupta spearheaded issues from building police-community trust to safeguarding reproductive freedom, increasing support for victims of gun violence and other crimes, promoting competition and economic opportunity, and expanding community violence intervention programmes, according to the DoJ's website.

Gupta supervised the department's civil litigating divisions, grantmaking components, Office for Access to Justice, Office of Information Policy, Community Relations Service, United States Trustees Programme, and Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.

A former acting assistant attorney general and one of America's best-known and most respected civil rights attorneys, Gupta chairs the department's Reproductive Rights and Opioid Epidemic Civil Litigation Task Forces and is leading its work to combat unjust and unlawful fines and fees practices.

Gupta previously served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the oldest and the largest coalition of non-partisan civil rights organisations in the United States, according to the department.

She also served as the Deputy Legal Director and the Director of the Center for Justice at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Gupta graduated from Yale University and received her law degree from New York University School of Law, where she later taught a civil rights litigation clinic for several years.