WASHINGTON ― A Black former U.S. appeals court docket choose appointed by President George W. Bush privately reached out to Senate leaders this month to induce them to substantiate President Joe Biden’s Muslim judicial decide Adeel Mangi, saying he’s “deeply disturbed” by the GOP’s ugly and baseless assaults on him.
In a letter obtained by HuffPost and despatched final week to Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), former federal choose Timothy Lewis stated he felt compelled to succeed in out due to how badly Mangi has been handled in his affirmation course of in comparison with what Lewis skilled in his.
“I’ve been deeply disturbed by the unfounded and disturbing assaults towards Adeel Mangi, and I strongly help his nomination,” stated Lewis.
“This can be a nominee who ought to — and ordinarily would — have widespread bipartisan help,” he stated. “As a substitute, he’s being subjected to assaults towards his character. His accusers declare he helps terrorism and is anti-Semitic. These allegations are completely unfounded.”
The letter comes as Democratic help for Mangi — who can be the first-ever Muslim appeals court docket choose if confirmed — seems to be shaky amid a wave of deceptive and Islamophobic assaults from Republicans.
Some Senate Democratic aides advised HuffPost on Friday they weren’t positive if he had the votes to get confirmed.
“I feel will probably be very powerful at this level,” one aide, who requested anonymity to talk frankly about intra-party disputes, conceded.
Lewis was a choose for seven years on the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the third Circuit, the identical court docket to which Mangi has been nominated. Like Mangi, he was a judicial nominee in a presidential election 12 months, in 1992. And like Mangi, he was a historic decide. He was one among two Black judges nominated to an appeals court docket by Bush. The opposite was then-D.C. Circuit nominee Clarence Thomas.
Mangi is a 23-year civil litigator primarily based in New Jersey. He was unanimously rated well-qualified by the American Bar Affiliation and has been praised by quite a lot of organizations, together with the AFL-CIO, the Coalition of Underrepresented Legislation Enforcement Associations and greater than a dozen Jewish teams, for each his authorized and pro-bono work.
However for months, Mangi has been the goal of blatantly Islamophobic assaults by Republican senators and right-wing teams just like the Judicial Disaster Community. This group has run advertisements accusing Mangi of being a “radical” and an “antisemite,” and of being concerned in a company’s efforts to show college students “to hate Israel, to hate America and to help international terrorism.” None of that is true.
“I can’t assist however distinction Mr. Mangi’s expertise as a nominee with my very own,” Lewis stated in his letter to Senate leaders. ”I used to be handled with respect not simply by senators of the get together of the president who nominated me, but additionally by the Democratic senators who held the bulk. I used to be confirmed by unanimous consent lower than a month earlier than Election Day.”
Lewis warned {that a} Senate rejection of Mangi would have a “poisonous long-term influence on the whole federal judiciary.” He instructed that folks from underrepresented communities “are prone to suppose twice” about accepting a judicial nomination in the event that they consider they are going to be unfairly attacked and stereotyped in the best way that Mangi has been.
“It doesn’t must be this manner,” he stated.
You possibly can learn Lewis’ full letter right here:
Conservatives’ efforts to forged Mangi as antisemitic appeared to lose traction after Jewish teams rose up in his protection, so that they’ve pivoted to a brand new assault: portray him as an enemy of legislation enforcement. Judicial Disaster Community president Carrie Severino has been aggressively pushing a story that Mangi helps an “anti-law enforcement group,” the Alliance of Households for Justice, on whose advisory board he has served since 2019.
Severino and different Republicans are accusing Mangi of supporting the killing of cops as a result of Alliance of Households for Justice in 2021 advocated for the parole of growing old Black Panther members like Mumia Abu-Jamal, who caught COVID-19 in jail and was liable to dying. Abu-Jamal has been in jail since 1981 after being convicted of killing a police officer. (His conviction has been the topic of many years of scrutiny, and teams like Amnesty Worldwide have lengthy argued he by no means received a good trial and deserves a brand new one.)
The false narrative about Mangi has gotten so twisted that it bears no resemblance to what this group does or what his connection is to it. AFJ is a nonprofit that provides counseling providers to members of the family of people that have been incarcerated. It supplies providers like arranging care packages, ensuring folks have enough visitation and offering housing reentry or authorized help when folks get out.
Mangi’s connection to it is rather free. In 2020, his legislation agency, Patterson Belknap, took on a wrongful loss of life case referred by AFJ that concerned a mentally in poor health inmate who was killed by a correctional officer. Mangi took the lead within the case and received, incomes the inmate’s household the biggest settlement in New York state historical past.
Given the massive success of this case, AFJ requested Mangi to hitch its advisory board. He joined, however by no means took one other case from the group.
That is what has been distorted into accusations that Mangi helps cop-killers. GOP operatives have been lobbying legislation enforcement teams to publicly oppose Mangi on these grounds. Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), who was already extremely offensive in his remedy of Mangi in his nomination listening to, are actually amplifying these assaults.
However Cruz and different Senate Republicans are hoping no one notices the hypocrisy in what they’re doing: nearly all of them voted ― twice ― to substantiate judges appointed by President Donald Trump who beforehand did authorized work immediately on behalf of individuals convicted of killing cops.
Senate Republicans overwhelmingly voted in 2018 to substantiate Ryan Nelson to his present seat on the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Nelson labored on a case, Dean v. United States, and stated in his Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire that it was an “honor” to characterize Marthell Dean in two consolidated appeals. Dean was convicted of murdering D.C. police officer Brian Gibson as Gibson sat in his patrol automotive.
Senate Republicans additionally overwhelmingly voted in 2019 to substantiate Anuraag Singhal to his present seat on the U.S. District Courtroom for the Southern District of Florida. Singhal represented Jeffrey Lee Weaver, who was charged with murdering Fort Lauderdale police officer Bryant Peney. Information protection of this case described Singhal crying as he argued in favor of life imprisonment for Weaver, fairly than the loss of life sentence.
“I hope you will discover some love in your coronary heart for Jeff Weaver,” Singhal stated with tears in his eyes, “and I hope you’ll let him die in jail.”
Lewis’ determination to weigh in on Mangi’s nomination seems to be in response to the egregious distortions of his report. It’s uncommon for federal judges, present or former, to become involved in one other judicial nominee’s affirmation course of.
He stated as a lot in his letter to Schumer and McConnell: “Mr. Mangi bears no resemblance by any means to the caricature being painted of him in some quarters.”
“Sadly, there’s a constituency on this present politicized atmosphere for such a smear marketing campaign directed at somebody who would turn into the primary Muslim American ever to serve on a federal appellate court docket,” Lewis stated. “However this isn’t a constituency whose fears and ignorance any United States senator ought to entertain, not to mention advance.”
For the second, Mangi’s nomination could also be in hassle. But the White Home continues to be strongly supporting him and lobbying senators to vote for him.
“President Biden is proud to have chosen Adeel Mangi, a very certified nominee who’s dedicated to the rule of legislation, lived the American dream via onerous work, confirmed his integrity, and would make historical past on the bench,” White Home spokesperson Andrew Bates advised HuffPost in an announcement.
“Mr. Mangi was accredited by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the White Home continues to struggle for his affirmation and to repudiate the vicious hate and bigotry with which he has been focused due to his Muslim religion,” Bates stated. “Senior employees are calling members on his behalf on daily basis, and no senator ought to cave to hateful, undignified lies.”
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who advisable Mangi to the White Home for this court docket seat, stated he’s ready to struggle to get Mangi’s nomination throughout the end line.
“Adeel Mangi is an distinctive nominee. He’s an individual of integrity and deep conviction with an unflinching dedication to equity and equality,” he advised HuffPost in an announcement.
“Since his nomination, Adeel Mangi has been subjected to an outrageous and unrelenting marketing campaign of ugly, unfaithful Islamophobic smears,” Booker stated. “I do know the White Home, Senate Democratic leaders, and I stand behind Adeel Mangi 100% and stay up for the affirmation of America’s first Muslim federal appeals court docket choose.”