Amul Thapar among potential nominees on Trump's list for SC judge nominees

Washington: Indian-American judge Amul Thapar is among the shortlisted potential nominees for US Supreme Court justices picked by President-elect Donald Trump.

Thapars name figured in Trumps second list of 21 individuals who would be considered for the nomination of Supreme Court judge.

The nomination list, announced on September 23, now assumes significance since Trump, as the 45th president of the United States, would be in a position to nominate three Supreme Court judges.

47-year-old Thapar currently holds the position of US District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Venezuelan-born Federico Moreno, 64, who sits in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida is the only other minority candidate to be shortlisted.

The first Article II Judge of South Asian origin, Thapar was nominated to this position by the former Republican president George W Bush.

"He has taught law students at the University of Cincinnati and Georgetown. Thapar has served as an Assistant US Attorney in Washington and the Southern District of Ohio," the Trump Campaign said.

Immediately prior to his judicial appointment, Judge Thapar was the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He received his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

"This list is definitive and I will choose Justices of the United States Supreme Court only from it," Trump had said in September while releasing the list.

"I would like to thank the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation and many other individuals who helped in composing this list of twenty-one highly respected people who are the kind of scholars that we need to preserve the very core of our country and make it greater than ever before," he said.

Born in Detroid, Michigan, Thapar was nominated by George W Bush on May 24, 2007, to a seat vacated by Joseph M Hood. He was confirmed by the Senate on December 13, 2007, and received commission on January 4, 2008.

Thapar has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where he taught Federal Criminal Practice. He graduated from the renowned Boalt Hall School of Law of the University of California after receiving his undergraduate degree from Boston College.

From Lalit K Jha