By Arul Louis
New York, (IANS): US President Donald Trump has announced that he is nominating an Indian-American woman, Neomi Rao, to the senior judgeship that was vacated by Brett Kavanaugh when he was elevated to the Supreme Court.
Trump said Rao was his pick for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals judgeship. “She is a ‘great person’ who “is going to be fantastic”, he said.
Of the 13 courts of appeal, the one in the District of Columbia is regarded as the most important as it is based in the nation’s capital and weighty federal litigation ends up before it.
A conservative former law professor, Rao, 45, heads the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the President’s executive office which reviews government regulations and oversees collection of information by government and privacy policy.
The Senate will have to approve her appointment.
As a woman and a minority, Rao’s nomination could ensure smoother sailing for Trump nominee in the Senate, although as a conservative she will face an ideological inquisition at the hands of the Democrats.
Rao comes from a Parsi family and her parents, both doctors, immigrated from India.
A graduate of Yale University, she received her law degree from Chicago University and went on to be a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She has worked as a lawyer in former President George W. Bush’s White House and with the Senate judicial committee before becoming a professor at George Mason University.
India Tribune, as an English weekly newspaper, was launched in 1977 in Chicago by its publisher Prashant Shah with a lofty ideal to serve the Asian Indian community in the USA. Over the years, it has grown with all vigor, and now it is being published in three editions – Chicago, New York and Atlanta. India Tribune, a journal of its kind for the family in the USA, has been a household name for many Indians for over three decades with each issue commanding a readership of over 125,000.
