Senate confirms first South Asian judge to appeals court
Roopali Desai, an Arizona attorney who successfully defended state election officials against a Republican challenge to the 2020 presidential election results, was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where she will become its first judge of South Asian descent.
The vote was 67-29, with 19 Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, joining Democrats in supporting Desai. It was the largest majority vote yet for any of President Biden’s appeals court nominees, said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor who tracks judicial appointments.
Desai, 44, the daughter of South Asian immigrants, was a law clerk to the Ninth Circuit’s chief judge, Mary Schroeder, before beginning private law practice in Phoenix in 2006. She has served as campaign attorney for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and also drafted and defended a 2020 ballot measure that legalized personal use of marijuana in Arizona.
During the 2020 election, Desai successfully represented Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, against a lawsuit by President Donald Trump’s campaign that sought to overturn Biden’s victory in the state. She also represented Hobbs this year in opposition to a Republican lawsuit that unsuccessfully sought to prohibit all voting in Arizona before election day.
In Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings, Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Desai’s political work and Democratic
connections suggested she would be a partisan activist on the court.
The nominee replied that she was committed to the rule of law. And a conservative attorney who had opposed her in several cases, Alexander Kolodin, said in a letter to the committee, “having faced the very best litigators the other side has to offer, I can tell you with confidence — nobody else holds a candle to Ms. Desai . ... In terms of temperament, intelligence, and honesty Roopali is eminently qualified.”
She succeeds Judge Andrew Hurwitz, an appointee of former
President Barack Obama who is transferring to senior status, with a reduced caseload. The Ninth Circuit, the nation’s largest federal appeals court, has 16 Democratic appointees and 13 Republican appointed among its active judges.
“The kind of extensive and broad civil rights experience she brings to the federal bench, including experience defending our democracy and our freedom to vote, is much needed in our judiciary,” Lena Zwarensteyn, an attorney with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said Thursday. She said Desai “will bring vital and underrepresented perspectives to the Ninth Circuit.”