The Senate on Thursday voted 81-16 to confirm Zahid Quraishi as U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey, making him the first Muslim American federal judge in the country's history.
Qurashi will be "the first Muslim American to serve as an Article III judge in our history," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
The son of Pakistani immigrants, Quraishi was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, where he earned his law degree from Rutgers Law School.
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