Top Pennsylvania police union leaders urge Senate to ‘reject’ Biden judicial nominee

The walls appear to be closing in for President Joe Biden‘s chances to name the first Muslim American judge to a lifetime position on a federal appeals court.

Leaders of the largest police unions, representing 40,000 officers in Pennsylvania, penned a letter to Senate leadership Thursday calling for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to “stand up for law enforcement” and oppose the nomination of Adeel Mangi to the appeals court, citing his affiliation with an organization that called a person who murdered a police officer a “freedom fighter.”

“Mr. Mangi has never been a judge at any level, but our opposition to his nomination is based on far more serious concerns,” the police unions’ leadership said, according to the letter, which was penned by three presidents of major police unions in Pennsylvania that oppose his nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.

“On behalf of more than 40,000 members of the Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police, Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5, and the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association, we’re writing today to ask that you reject the nomination of Adeel A. Mangi,” the group told Senate leader in the letter, including Schumer, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL), along with Pennsylvania Sens. John Fetterman (D) and Bob Casey (D).

The state police union leaders cited the 1981 murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner by Mumia Abu-Jamal in their letter. Mangi, a Muslim American partner at Patterson Belknap, has also served as an advisory board member of the Alliance of Families for Justice, a group that praised Faulkner’s killer as an “elder freedom fighter” during a May 7, 2021, event.

Faulkner was shot and killed by Abu-Jamal at an intersection less than a mile from where the 3rd Circuit hears cases in Philadelphia. The shooter was subsequently convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death and is still living on death row.

Notably, one of AFJ’s founding board members, Kathy Boudin, pleaded guilty to a felony murder for her role in a Brinks armored truck robbery that resulted in the death of two police officers in 1981. Boudin is also the mother of Chesa Boudin, who became the first San Francisco district attorney to be recalled after relentless criticism for his soft-on-crime policies in 2022.

The letter comes one day after Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) became the third Democrat in the Senate to come out against Biden’s nominee to be the first Muslim to serve on a federal appeals court.

Rosen joined Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) in opposing Mangi, who has also received pushback in recent months from Senate Republicans due to his connections to anti-law enforcement and anti-Israel groups.

The Biden nominee was only approved this year by the Judiciary Committee on an 11-10 party-line vote and faces mounting uncertainty because Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority. No Republicans have voiced support for Mangi, but Democrats would need at least two Republicans to cross party lines and back Mangi in order for him to get confirmed.

Last week, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) defended Mangi in a passionate speech, where he said Mangi is a “great American” who has been under attack by “bitter, twisted lies.”

“Nothing you can do will ever, ever impinge the character of this great American. Nothing you can do will ever dim his love for this nation,” Booker said.

The New Jersey senator’s speech came on the same day Mangi sent a letter to Booker in which he defended himself as never having “involvement with or knowledge” of the 2021 AFJ event.

“I would like to note that I emphatically disagree with the phrasing used with regard to that event (‘elder freedom fighters’),” Mangi said. “I have never and would never use such phrasing to refer to anyone convicted of crimes against law enforcement.”

Earlier this month, Pennsylvania lawmakers Fetterman and Casey indicated they would support Mangi if his confirmation eventually came to a floor vote, with Fetterman describing the concerns about the nominee as “misinformation and innuendo simply because of his faith.”

The Senate returns from recess on the afternoon of April 8, though Mangi’s nomination has not yet been slated for a vote when lawmakers return.

McConnell has called on Democrats to fill the appellate court vacancy with Zahid Quraishi, who was appointed to the District of New Jersey in 2021 by an 81-16 confirmation vote, making him the first Muslim life-tenured federal judge.

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Meanwhile, the White House has continued to defend Mangi as a viable pick for the 3rd Circuit and has touted endorsements from seven law enforcement groups, including the National Organization of Black Women in Law Enforcement and the Anti-Defamation League.

“Mr. Mangi, who has lived the American Dream and proven his integrity, is being targeted by a malicious and debunked smear campaign solely because he would make history as the first Muslim to serve as a federal appellate judge,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.