[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 101 (Thursday, June 10, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4028-S4029]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Zahid Quraishi

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I thank my distinguished colleague from 
New Jersey for allowing me to go first because I have one of our 
foreign country's Ambassador in my office.
  Today, in the Senate, we have an opportunity to both alleviate a 
judicial emergency and make history by supporting the confirmation of 
Zahid Quraishi to the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, where he 
currently serves as a U.S. magistrate judge.
  As I mentioned many times in the past, the vacancies on this court 
have been declared judicial emergencies by the Judicial Conference of 
the United States. The U.S. District of New Jersey is one of the 
busiest courts in the entire country, with 46,000 cases pending before 
it. Yet being short-staffed has left our judges with mind-boggling 
caseloads, more than three times the national average.
  Fortunately, we in the Senate have an extraordinary nominee before us 
this week. Judge Quraishi has devoted his career to serving our 
country, and his story embodies both the rich diversity of New Jersey 
and the promise of America as a place where anything is possible.
  He was born in New York, grew up in Fanwood, NJ, with his parents, 
both immigrants from Pakistan, who came to this country to build a 
better life. In 1997, he graduated from the John Jay College of 
Criminal Justice in New York, and in 2000, he earned his J.D. from 
Rutgers Law School, my alma mater.
  After a clerkship with the New Jersey Superior Court, Mr. Quraishi 
accepted a position with a New York law firm. His first day on the job 
was September 11, 2001, and the horrific events of that day prompted 
him to change the trajectory of his career and focus on serving our 
country.
  In 2003, he joined the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, 
where he earned the rank of captain and served two deployments in 
Iraq--first in 2004 and then 2006. For his service, Mr. Quraishi was 
awarded the Bronze Star and the Combat Action Badge, a recognition by 
the U.S. Army for noninfantry soldiers who engage in ground combat.
  After leaving the Army, he continued to work in public service, first 
as trial counsel with the Department of Homeland Security and then as a 
Federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of 
New Jersey.
  In 2013, he joined the law firm of Riker Danzig, where he worked 
until 2019, when he was appointed as a U.S. magistrate judge for the 
U.S. district court and became the first Asian-American Federal judge 
in New Jersey's history.
  Now Mr. Quraishi is poised to break barriers once more. If confirmed, 
he will become the first Muslim American in U.S. history to serve as an 
article III Federal judge. My colleagues, Zahid Quraishi is a man of 
integrity, a consummate public servant, and a trailblazer for Asian 
Americans and Muslim Americans across this country who dream of one day 
presiding over a court of their own.
  We should all draw our inspiration from his story because it is a 
story that could only take place in the United States of America. I 
urge my colleagues to support this historic nomination to the U.S. 
District Court of New Jersey without delay.
  And I want to thank my distinguished colleague from New Jersey, 
Senator Booker, for bringing Judge Quraishi's nomination to the 
President and to myself, and it is an example of the power of having 
someone sitting on the Judiciary Committee knowing the importance of 
diversity, so that any American who comes before a Federal court can 
think that someone like them is sitting in judgment of them. So I thank 
Senator Booker.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I thank my senior Senator, who himself has 
an

[[Page S4029]]

improbable story, his lived experience, a son of immigrants coming up 
in New Jersey, being born in a way that he knows struggle and knows 
poverty. And the fact that he is on the Senate floor speaking about 
someone else who has an improbable story shows you the greatness of 
America.
  I am grateful for my senior Senator and chairman of the Foreign 
Relations Committee for taking time to show us the importance of this 
moment. This is history here.
  America has never before had an article III judge who also happens to 
be a Muslim. That has never before happened. Think about this: 200-plus 
years in American history, a country that was born and our Founders 
enshrined in our very founding documents, in the Bill of Rights, this 
ideal of freedom of religion. We celebrate religious plurality and 
religious diversity.
  So this is an extraordinary moment. Now, I am thrilled that it is a 
bipartisan moment. In committee, during this time of heightened 
partisanship, in the Judiciary Committee, Judge Quraishi passed out 19 
to 3--19 to 3--which is a further testimony not just to the gravity of 
this historic moment, not just to a man's religion, but to the man 
himself, the core of who he is. Senator Menendez said this.
  Many people, after 9/11, felt the deep, agonizing grief in this 
country. We are not defined as a nation by what happens to us. We are 
defined by how we choose to respond. From the attacks at Pearl Harbor 
to the attacks on 9/11, those horrific moments, you saw how this Nation 
showed who it is--our grit, our guts, our grace, our greatness.
  That is the tradition of Judge Quraishi. A man that had a glide path 
toward a career of comfort and private sector success made a decision. 
Those horrific tragedies, he would not let them define our Nation. How 
we defined ourselves was by people like him.
  He joined the Army. He became a U.S. Army judge advocate. He attained 
the rank of captain. He was deployed to Iraq--first in 2004 and then 
again in 2006. And after his service in the military, Judge Quraishi 
continued his service to the Nation, like so many of our veterans do--
first as the assistant chief counsel in the U.S. Department of Homeland 
Security and then as a Federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office 
for the District of New Jersey.
  Do not define a person by what they say. Simply do not define them by 
their faith and do not define them by the color of their skin, but by 
the content of their character and in the actions that they take. In a 
time that our Nation was crippled with grief, he stood up and he 
served, and he has been serving every single step since. He is ``well 
qualified.'' That is what the American Bar Association says.
  But I tell you, he is well qualified on a higher standard than that. 
He is a patriot to this country. Patriotism is love of Nation, but love 
is not a being verb. It is a doing verb. It is action. His actions have 
shown his love for America, and now he is up here in this Chamber to 
make history. I urge my colleagues, as we saw in the Judiciary 
Committee in a 19-to-3 vote, to vote in a bipartisan way.
  This is a chance for the annals of time to show our commitment to 
great people, to a great man, to a person of character, to a person of 
commitment, to a person of conviction, to a person of patriotism who 
happens also to be Muslim and, for the first time in American history, 
to achieve something. It should have been achieved a long time ago.
  I am going to conclude by saying something: Judge Quraishi and I are 
relatively of a similar age, and we share another painful life 
happening that I know many of my colleagues have shared as well. During 
COVID-19, during this pandemic, the judge's father died. I talked to 
him during this time, and he is a man that was clearly grieving but 
kept a lot of that emotion under his jacket, in his heart.
  I just want to say for the record: Judge Quraishi, you and I are both 
people of faith. And I want to tell him right now and say into this 
record: It is your father who also loved this country, who brought 
about an American dream for his family. He is watching right now this 
happening, these deliberations on the Senate floor. He, I pray, will 
see his son make history. And, Judge Quraishi, I am telling you right 
now, Your father is proud of you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader