US President Donald Trump on Monday nominated Indian-American Saritha Komatireddy to be a judge at the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Currently, Komatireddy is a prosecutor and teaches law at the Columbia Law School. From June 2018 to January 2019, Komatireddy was acting deputy chief, International Narcotics and Money Laundering. From 2016 to 2019, she held the position of computer hacking and intellectual property coordinator.
She is the deputy chief of general crimes in the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Upon graduating from the prestigious Harvard Law School, Komatireddy served as a law clerk to then-judge Brett Kavanaugh of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Trump first announced his intent to nominate Komatireddy to serve as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Trump has submitted Komatireddy’s nomination to the Senate. She is touted to fill the seat left vacant by Judge Joseph F. Bianco. Bianco was elevated to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on May 17, 2019.
When Brett Kavanaugh was nominated by Trump to the position of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the US, Komatireddy made her support towards Kavanaugh vocal. She had said, “I considered it a special privilege to train under a man who had such fundamental respect for the law and a complete commitment to getting it right.”
The statement was made a couple of months before Kavanaugh was accused of sexual misconduct as a teen.
Originally hailing from the state of Telangana, both of Komatireddy’s parents are doctors. Her mother, Geetha Reddy, is a rheumatologist, while father, Hanumanth Reddy, is a cardiologist.
Komatireddy also served as counsel to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is the largest marine oil spill in history, caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010. The rig was located in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 41 miles (66km) off the coast of Louisiana.
