Trump appoints Amul Thapar as Judge on US Court of Appeals

Washington, June 2

Amul Thapar, an Indian-American legal luminary, has been appointed a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Donald Trump, the White House has said.

Before his appointment to the Court of Appeals, Judge Thapar served on the District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Thapar, 48, was confirmed last week by the Senate 52-44 in a vote on party lines.

The son of Indian-American immigrants, Thapar was the Nation’s first Article III judge of South Asian descent.

In addition to his career on Federal bench, Thapar has served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky and as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.

Trump has nominated 10 judges to lower courts, including Thapar, who is Trump’s first judicial nominee to be confirmed by the Senate, apart from Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

Thapar began his legal career in private practice, after clerkships with Judge S Arthur Spiegel of the District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and Judge Nathaniel R Jones of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

He received his BS from Boston College in 1991 and his JD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Thapar is a member of The South Asian Bar Association of North America’s (SABA) National Advisory Council, and has served as a keynote for the Annual Convention and for many of our chapters.

SABA awarded him its Pioneer Award in 2010.

He has also taught at the University of Virginia School of Law, Vanderbilt Law School, and the Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law.

Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. PTI