NEW YORK: Indian-American civil rights lawyer Vanita Gupta has been confirmed as the US Associate Attorney-General with the help of a breakaway Republican Senator overcoming stiff opposition from her fellow party members who accused the nominee of espousing "radical" policies.
Vanita Gupta is An acclaimed lawyer in the US civil rights movement having as a newly-minted lawyer won the release of 38 people, most of them African-Americans, who had been wrongly convicted by all-White juries on drug charges in a Texas town and also got them USD 6 million in compensation.
Gupta overcame a campaign against her estimated to have run close to a million dollars by conservative and right-wing groups portraying as a "radical" who was against law enforcement.
Senator Lisa Murkowski gave her the crucial vote on Wednesday in the 100-member Senate, which is evenly divided between the Republican and Democratic parties, to assume the third-highest position in the Justice Department.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has to give preliminary approval for Gupta's confirmation, was deadlocked on her nomination for more than a month and the Senate bypassed it.
Gupta was the second Indian-American nominee of President Joe Biden to run into difficulties in the Senate, which must approve all senior appointments, because of previous policy stances as well as divisive tweets.
Neera Tandon, who was nominated to the important cabinet position of the director of the Office of Management and Budget, withdrew herself from consideration after it became clear that she would face opposition from Democrats in addition to all the 50 Republicans making her confirmation impossible.
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