The Federalist reported that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has five judges who were born outside the United States.
“While country of origin doesn’t come up in most jobs, it is worth asking if judges with ties to foreign nations and cultures are the right ones to make decisions affecting the U.S. military or immigration,” the Federalist’s Beth Brelje wrote.
The district court in question has 15 main judges, five of whom were born outside of America; Democrats have notably nominated many individuals who were born outside the country for judgeships on this key district court.
In 2014, then-President Barack Obama nominated Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to serve on the district court. Before her confirmation to the court, she had no experience as a judge, and she has controversially ordered Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to disclose its plans and personnel.
Obama also appointed Judge Amit P. Mehta to the D.C. court; Mehta had no prior experience as a judge and was born in Patan, Gujarat, India. Mehta will oversee four January 6 cases.
President Joe Biden nominated the other three judges.
In 2021, he tapped Judge Ana Cecilia Reyes, who — in a notable trend — had no prior experience as a judge. She was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, moved to Spain, and then ended up in Louisville, Kentucky. Reyes is notable for serving as the first openly LGBT Latina on this court. She objected to Trump’s executive order declaring that “gender dysphoria” is “inconsistent” with the Pentagon’s “high standards for troop readiness.”
Judge Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali was born in Canada to Egyptian parents, The Federalist reports:
According to his Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees, Ali was not required to register for the U.S. Selective Service. That is because he was not a citizen until 2019. He graduated from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada with a software engineering degree in 2008 and then attended Harvard Law School in the U.S., graduating with a law degree in 2011.
He worked as a volunteer on Biden’s 2020 transition team and for a phone bank in support of Biden’s presidential campaign. He worked for some nonprofits but never served as a judge until Biden appointed him in 2024. Amir has written extensively and negatively about Trump’s so-called “Travel ban,” a 2017 Executive Order which restricted travel to the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries for 90 days.
Biden also nominated Judge Sparkle Sooknanan to the court; she was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1983.
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