President Joe Biden announced a new round of judicial nominations Wednesday that underscored the administration's push to expand diversity on the federal bench (White House Statement).
Among the new federal judge candidates Biden will be sending to the Senate for confirmation: the first Native American federal judge in Washington State; the second judge from Puerto Rico to sit on the Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit; and the second Black woman to serve on the New York-based Second Circuit.
If confirmed, the list includes what would be the second Hispanic judge to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Gustavo Gelpí; the second Black woman to serve on the Second Circuit, Eunice C. Lee; and the first American Indian federal judge in Washington State, Lauren J. King.
Gustavo Gelpí, appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico in 2006. Gelpí, who is chief judge of the District of Puerto Rico and an appointee of George W. Bush, was an assistant federal public defender early in his career. Lee is currently an assistant federal defender with the Federal Defenders of New York. And the nominee for the Tenth Circuit, Veronica S. Rossman, is currently an assistant federal defender with the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Districts of Colorado and Wyoming.
The other two picks are Angel Kelley, who is nominated to the District of Massachusetts, and Karen M. Williams, who is nominated to the District of New Jersey. Kelley would be the second Black and second Asian judge on the federal trial court in Massachusetts. Williams would be the first Black trial court judge to sit in the Camden courthouse of the District of New Jersey.