New Delhi, March 31 -- US President Joe Biden has appointed a Pakistani American, Zahid N. Quraishi, to be a federal judge. He would become the nation's first Muslim federal judge if confirmed by the Senate. Biden also nominated an Indian American, Rupa Ranga Puttagunta, to be a judge in the local court system of the nation's capital after having withdrawn another's nomination - also an Indian American, made by his predecessor Donald Trump.

The federal judgeship would be an elevation for Quraishi who is now a federal magistrate judge in New Jersey. Quraishi is a former US Army captain who ad served in Iraq and has also worked as an assistant chief counsel in the Department of Homeland Security and as an assistant federal prosecutor.

Mak...