[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 5, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1097-S1098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Nomination of Adeel Abdullah Mangi

  Mr. President, on another matter, I have spoken repeatedly about 
President Biden's attempt to give life tenure on the Federal bench to 
an activist tied to an extremist group that unabashedly celebrates 
terrorism. I have already made absolutely clear that the Senate should 
not--should not--confirm the nomination of Adeel Mangi to the Third 
Circuit Court of Appeals.
  But Mr. Mangi's alarming record doesn't stop at ties to terrorist 
sympathizers; it turns out he also has a history of support for anti-
police activism. In fact, he serves on the advisory board of a group of 
apologists for convicted cop killers. The so-called Alliance of 
Families for Justice, AFJ, was founded in part by a woman who actually 
pled guilty to the murder of a police officer and whose name has graced 
a fellowship they fund. With Mr. Mangi on their advisory board, the AFJ 
celebrated her and other cop killers as--listen to this--``freedom 
fighters.'' Take, for example, the executive director of AFJ. She was 
counsel of record on a brief to spring from prison a notorious cop 
killer whom she later compared favorably to Che Guevara.
  Honoring criminals and punishing law enforcement is the exact 
opposite of justice. One county police association in New York 
highlighted this irony by pointing out that ``Mr. Mangi's heroes 
executed our heroes who were protecting and serving the community.''
  Naturally, law enforcement associations across the country share this 
concern. They are concerned that a nominee who would be responsible for 
interpreting and upholding our laws is willing to make common cause 
with an

[[Page S1098]]

organization that excuses the most heinous form of lawbreaking. 
Overwhelmingly, the thin blue line is worried that Mr. Mangi's 
inability to distinguish between criminals and heroes renders him 
incapable of administering justice.
  As the National Association of Police Organizations put it, ``It is 
one thing to stand up for the rights of those shunned or mistreated by 
society. It is a far different thing to exalt unrepentant killers who 
were convicted following legal trials in courts of law. Mr. Mangi is 
smart enough to know the difference, and [he] has made his choice.''
  The National Sheriffs' Association said that Mangi's connection with 
AFJ ``raises concerns about a potential bias against victims and law 
enforcement, which could impact his decision-making as a lifetime 
appointed judge.''
  A State law enforcement group in New Jersey put it this way:

       We can respect a lawyer who represents criminal defendants 
     to the best of their ability. But we can't respect, and can 
     never support, a lawyer who so blatantly promotes the opinion 
     that the police are criminals, and the cop-killers are the 
     victims. He has disqualified himself as an impartial decider 
     of facts where police are involved.

  As far away as Arizona, the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association 
wrote:

       Mr. Mangi's conscious work with [the AFJ] shows an anti-
     victim and anti-police bias that would certainly cloud his 
     decision making as a judge.

  Now, it is worth noting here who is not involved. Even as law 
enforcement officers nationwide organize to sound the alarm, the 
country's largest police union has yet to weigh in. Each day, police 
work gets more dangerous thanks to the work of anti-cop activists like 
AFJ, but a member of their advisory board gets nominated to a Federal 
appeals court, and so far, it is silence--silence--from the Fraternal 
Order of Police.
  Well, I hope that changes soon. The last thing our country needs 
right now is another Federal judge who thinks criminals are the real 
victims--especially ones with the blood of police on their hands.
  American communities have been suffering for years under a 
coordinated leftwing campaign to coddle criminals and neuter our 
criminal justice system. District attorneys in deep-blue cities have 
put politics over prosecution and turned repeat violent offenders loose 
in their streets, and the Biden administration continues to encourage 
this sort of bad behavior.
  It is time to acknowledge who are the criminals and who are the 
heroes, and it is certainly time to refuse a lifetime appointment to 
the judiciary to anyone who cannot tell the difference.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I have a statement I am going to make on 
the Voting Rights Act, which I think is apropos as we are considering 
Super Tuesday and the millions of Americans who will participate. But 
first I would like to address the comments that were just made by the 
Republican Senate leader.
  Mr. President, you are a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 
and you were there the day Adeel Mangi's nomination came before our 
committee. It is a unique nomination. It has never happened before--
never in the history of the United States--because Mr. Mangi is a 
Muslim American, and he is being nominated to serve on the second 
highest court in the land.
  When you read his biography--and I don't have it before me; I am 
going to come back when I do have all the information before me--you 
cannot help but believe that this is an extraordinary individual and an 
extraordinary lawyer who is seeking this spot.
  The treatment he received in the Senate Judiciary Committee--you will 
remember it as well as I will--because he was a Muslim American was 
outrageous--outrageous. They believe that he must be a terrorist 
because he is Muslim, and it was suggested by a number of Senators 
questioning him that he has links with terrorism. In fact, one 
Republican Senator went so far as to ask him on the record: Do you 
celebrate 9/11 in your home? Do you celebrate 9/11 in your home?
  He said: Of course not. It was a horrible thing. I condemn all forms 
of violence and terrorism, he said, and those people--many who died--
were from the same community I was in in the States of New York and New 
Jersey.
  Then there was a suggestion that because he was a Muslim American, he 
must be anti-Semitic. I can't tell you how many different times that 
was asked of him, and he condemned anti-Semitism on a wholesale basis, 
with no qualifications and no equivocation.
  The questioning in that area was so outrageous against this 
individual, this Muslim American, so outrageous that the Anti-
Defamation League, a national organization, highly respected, that 
stands up for Jewish Americans and their rights and speaks out without 
hesitation when people are being critical and prejudicial to Jewish 
Americans, sent us on the Senate Judiciary Committee--unsolicited--a 
response to the questioning he faced. I read it into the record at the 
committee meeting.
  Mr. President, I want to tell you, politics is a beanbag, and I know 
that if you are seeking a lifetime appointment to the bench, you better 
be prepared to answer a lot of questions. Some of them will be fair, 
and some won't be fair, but be ready--it is going to happen. But what 
happened to Mr. Mangi in that committee was beyond anything acceptable 
by Senate standards, and it continues to this day.
  To argue that he somehow is a cop killer--my God. What more are they 
going to throw at this man? I am going to come before the Senate on 
another day--maybe even tomorrow, if I can do it--and tell the whole 
story about his nomination, but to listen to what was just said about 
this man is breathtaking.
  He is an extraordinary individual. He is overqualified for the job, 
if there is such a thing. He has certainly served his country and wants 
to do more. The fact that he is a Muslim American should not subject 
him to this type of a beating in the committee or on the floor of the 
Senate, and I will return to address that issue specifically at a later 
date.