SAUNDERS: Biden’s controversial judicial nominee twists in the wind

WASHINGTON — The nomination of Adeel Mangi to fill a vacancy in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hit the skids Tuesday when Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., made it known that she will not support President Joe Biden’s pick.

The Silver State’s senior senator told Bloomberg Government, “Mangi’s affiliation with the Alliance of Families for Justice is deeply concerning. This organization has sponsored a fellowship in the name of Kathy Boudin, a member of the domestic terrorist organization Weather Underground, and advocated for the release of individuals convicted of killing police officers. I cannot support this nominee.”

Of course, the usual leftists saw “Islamophobia” as the culprit.

“The Islamophobic Smear Campaign Divides Democrats,” read the headline for a piece by New York Times columnist Lydia Polgreen. The Huffington Post headline: “A Democrat Just Caved To the GOP’s Bogus Attacks on Biden’s Muslim Court Pick.”

Thursday on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell fought back. The GOP’s opposition to Mangi “has nothing to do with his Muslim faith,” he said. “Rather, it has everything to do with his longstanding sympathy for, and association with, some of the most radical elements in society.”

McConnell added that he was among 30-plus Republicans who in 2021 “happily voted for the first Muslim article III judge at the outset of the Biden administration, also of New Jersey.” McConnell was referring to Zahid Quraishi, who cleared the Senate in an 81-16 vote.

“We didn’t support this nominee because he was Muslim,” McConnell added. “It was because he had an extraordinary personal and professional background.”

In fact, Quraishi was the first Muslim American judge in U.S. history.

Quraishi’s first day of work in the private sector happened to be Sept. 11, 2001. The terrorist attack inspired the young lawyer to join the military. He served two tours in Iraq, in 2004 and 2006.

After serving in the military, the son of Pakistani immigrants worked in the Department of Homeland Security and in the U.S. attorney’s office.

Mangi has an amazing personal story as well. Born in Pakistan, he told the Senate, he was drawn to the law watching “Matlock” as kid in Karachi.

Mangi emigrated first to the United Kingdom, where he earned a law degree at Oxford as well as postgraduate diploma from London’s City Law School. Then it was on to Harvard Law School, where he received a Master’s of Law. He also became a U.S. citizen and a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler.

Mangi would be a great candidate — except for his role on the advisory board of Rutgers Law School’s Center for Security, Race and Rights. On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the center co-sponsored a discussion on the “legitimization of ‘war on terror’ and other imperialist wars.”

Mangi testified that he wasn’t aware of that language; he simply sat on an advisory board. And he denounced terrorism categorically.

During his confirmation hearing, when Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked Mangi if he considered Israeli Jews to be “colonial settlers,” Mangi stumbled. He responded, “I don’t feel qualified to opine on that because it’s not a region whose history I’ve studied or where I’m from” — and that “the conflict in Israel raises issues of policy.”

The Anti-Defamation League slammed Republicans for asking Mangi “endless questions that appear to have been motivated by bias towards his religion.”

Thing is, Mangi’s testimony didn’t help.

The National Sheriffs’ Association argued, “The fact that Mr. Mangi, as an Advisory Board member, aligns himself with an organization advocating for the release of convicted cop-killers is seriously disturbing.”

And: “The nomination raises concerns about appointing an individual with no pertinent experience to a judgeship at the second-highest level of our judicial system.”

Masto told Bloomberg Government it is up to Biden to decide whether Mangi’s nomination should be withdrawn. But as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told CNN, “I’m going to be very honest with everybody, if my Democratic colleagues and friends can’t get one Republican vote, don’t count on me.”

It’s just plain sad that the Biden White House didn’t understand the trap it was setting for fellow Democrats.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.