Indian-American on Trump's Supreme Court list to replace Justice Kennedy

Will Amul Thapar, the US' first Article III judge of South Asian descent, join the nine-member US Supreme Court?

At the age of 49, Amul Thapar, the son of Indian-American migrant parents, is in the race to join the highest federal court of the United States.

 Justice Anthony Kennedy, 81, announced his retirement from the US Supreme Court on Wednesday. He met Trump at the White House after he told his Supreme Court colleagues that July 31 would be his last day at the court. US President Donald Trump must now nominate a judge to replace Kennedy, and Amul is one of the seven judges Trump has his eye on, according to The Washington Post.

At  a press conference, Kennedy said it had been the “greatest honour and privilege to serve the nation in the federal judiciary for 43 years, 30 of those years on the Supreme Court”.

Reacting to his retirement, Trump said,

“Hopefully, we will pick someone who is just as outstanding."

Thapar was one of the 25 shortlisted judges on Trump's Supreme Court List, which was compiled by the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. The US President told reporters that his nominee to replace Kennedy would be from this list; numerous media outlets later identified Thapar, from Kentucky, as one of the shortlisted judges.

Thapar, a favorite of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, was interviewed by Trump for the Supreme Court vacancy last year. Kennedy's resignation reopens the door for Thapar's consideration, said Courier Journal.

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Thapar is the nation's first Article III judge of South Asian descent. He was confirmed by the Senate 52-44. An alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley, and Boston College, he graduated in the year 1991. He began his legal career 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, according to Asian Age.

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