President Joe Biden again nominated New Jersey attorney Adeel Abdullah Mangi for U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit on Monday after Mangi’s first nomination was blasted by Republicans just last month.
The president first nominated Mangi, a Muslim American, in November before Senate Republicans grilled him over his work for a group accused of featuring speakers who backed anti-Semitic and anti-American activism. Biden remained committed to appointing the attorney as a federal judge in the new year, however, as Mangi’s name appeared in a long list of the president’s nominations sent to the Senate.
“Given the alarming rise of anti-Semitism around the world, it’s disappointing that the Biden administration would choose to re-nominate Adeel Mangi to a seat on the federal bench,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told The Daily Wire. “Mangi served on the board of and donated generously to a law school organization that amplifies the most vicious anti-Semitic terrorist propaganda. This should be disqualifying for a lifetime judicial appointment.”
Mangi was a member of an advisory board for the Center for Security, Race, and Rights at Rutgers Law School from 2019 to 2023. Republican senators were appalled after finding that the center co-sponsored a symposium on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 that featured a panelist who pled guilty to providing support for Islamic jihadists and another panelist who publicly called for an intifada in the U.S.
The Biden nominee told Senators during his confirmation hearing that the advisory board he served on only met once a year and focused on addressing academic issues at Rutgers Law School. He added that he never heard of the event that featured anti-Semitic and anti-American panelists. When asked by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) if he agreed with the words of the center’s director that Israel is “an occupying force in Palestine,” Mangi responded, “The history of that region is very complex, and I don’t claim to be an expert in it.”
The confirmation hearing for Mangi took place just one week after the presidents of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT testified before Congress and failed to say whether calling for the genocide of Jews violated the universities’ policies on harassment and hate speech. In their testimonies, the presidents cited a need for “context” before making a judgment on whether calling for genocide violated school conduct codes.
During his questioning last month, Mangi said he could not answer a question from Sen. Josh Hawley on Israel’s right to self-defense because he doesn’t claim to be an expert on foreign policy or the Middle East.
“Senator, I have no basis as a judicial nominee to cast views on the Middle East,” said Mangi.
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“You’re not answering my question,” Hawley shot back. “I’m asking you whether this individual who said that Israel was a violent settler colonial state, I’m just trying to get you to say, do you agree with that or not. … Why can’t you just say, ‘no I don’t agree with this’? Let’s try again, do you agree with this statement, yes or no?”
“Senator, in order to agree or disagree with any statement, I need to have sufficient factual background to address it,” the nominee replied.
McConnell then slammed Biden’s nominee for the Third Circuit in a speech on the Senate floor for his work on the center’s board, which McConnell said defends “grotesque anti-Semitic activism.”
If confirmed, Mangi would become the first Muslim American to sit on a federal appeals court. Mangi was born in Pakistan and graduated from Harvard Law School in 2000. Mangi has served on multiple boards of directors, including the Muslim Bar Association of New York, Muslims for Progressive Values, and the National LGBT Bar Association.