On paper, President Biden’s nominee to fill a vacancy on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals is an archetypical candidate for a federal judgeship. Adeel Abdullah Mangi has a sterling legal education, which he followed with a distinguished career at a high-profile private firm mixing corporate litigation with important pro bono work. The candidate has another quality that was especially appealing to Biden, who has made diversifying the federal bench a key priority: Mangi would be the first Muslim American federal appellate judge in the United States. When Mangi appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee in December for a hearing about this lifetime appointment, Republican senators did not ask him about his legal background or judicial philosophy. Such bad faith ambushes are Cruz’s stock in trade, especially since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.

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Persons: Biden’s, Adeel Abdullah Mangi, Biden, Mangi, Ted Cruz of Organizations: Third, Appeals, Muslim, Republican Locations: United States, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mangi, Pakistani American, Palestine, Israel