US President Donald Trump has re-nominated an Indian American prosecutor Diane Gujarati to be a federal judge.
The White House announced on Monday that Trump was again sending her nomination to the Senate for confirmation as a judge of the federal court for Eastern New York that has jurisdiction over parts of New York City and Long Island.
She was first nominated by President Barack Obama in 2016. Trump renominated her last year and both times the full Senate didn't act on the nomination, even though the Senate Judicial Committee had unanimously approved it.
Gujarati is now the deputy chief of the criminal division of the federal prosecutor's office for Southern New York that has jurisdiction over Manhattan.
Her father, Damodar Gujarati, is an economics professor at West Point, US Military Academy, that trains officers. Her mother, Ruth Pincus Gujarati, taught social studies at a New York City high school.
After graduating in law from Yale University, Diane worked as law clerk to a federal appeals court judge and at a top law firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell, before joining the prosecutor's office.
She has the backing of both Democratic senators from New York, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as Trump. But her nomination was one of hundreds backlogged in the Senate, although in her case it was not on ideological grounds.
Last month, the Senate approved appointment of Neomi Rao as a judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, considered the most important after the Supreme Court. She replaced Brett Kavanaugh, who was elevated to the Supreme Court. Considered a conservative jurist, her nomination split the Senate along party lines.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis)
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