US Senate confirmation makes Vanita Gupta first Indian American associate attorney general

Washington, DC: A divided US Senate on Wednesday voted to confirm Vanita Gupta as the first woman of color to serve in the No. 3 job at the justice department, a role at the forefront of the department’s renewed efforts to combat systemic racism in policing. Gupta won confirmation as President Joe Biden’s associate attorney general in a final vote of 51-49.

Only one Republican — Lisa Murkowski — voted to confirm her, saying she felt Gupta was personally committed to combating injustice. “I have looked at her record. I have had an extensive sit-down with her. I’m impressed with not only her professional credentials … but the passion that she carries with her with the work that she performs,” she said.

Gupta has faced a fraught confirmation process amid attacks by right-wing groups and Senate Republicans who have criticized her on everything from prior statements she has made on social media to her stock holdings in a company accused of selling a key ingredient used to make heroin in Mexico.

The US Senate on Wednesday confirmed Indian American lawyer Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general in the justice department. Gupta, President Joe Biden’s nominee, was confirmed in a narrow 51-49 vote with Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator from Alaska, joining the Democrats in her support.
Gupta, 46, has now made history to become the first Indian American and first woman of color to hold the third highest-ranking position in the US department of justice. The Indian American Impact Fund, an organization that supports and endorses people of Indian origin in the US to run for political and public offices, has congratulated Gupta on her historic confirmation.

“Vanita Gupta is the daughter of Indian immigrants who came to the US with only eight dollars and a dream. She has become one of the foremost civil rights advocates in the country and will effectuate our highest ideals of justice as associate attorney general,” said Neil Makhija, executive director of IMPACT.

“We are deeply proud of Gupta, knowing that she will be a stalwart champion for all Americans and in particular communities that have been marginalized. At a time when we see assaults on our voting rights and a rise in hate crimes, our country needs a champion for civil rights like Gupta at the highest levels of the justice department,” Makhija said.
Born to Indian immigrant parents and raised in the Philadelphia area, Gupta received her bachelors’ degree from Yale University and her professional law degree from New York University. She has had a long and illustrious career of fighting for civil rights and started her legal career in the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a high profile non-profit legal organization. 

As associate attorney general at the justice department, Gupta will play a pivotal role in supervising the department’s civil rights work, including an investigation announced by attorney general Merrick Garland on Wednesday into policing practices in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd. She will also be involved with overseeing the department’s civil, antitrust and environment and natural resources divisions.
Gupta served as acting assistant attorney general of the civil rights division during the Obama administration, during which time she oversaw high-profile probes into systemic abuses by police in Baltimore and Ferguson, Missouri.

 

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