WASHINGTON, D.C. – Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law issued the following statement in reaction to the United States Senate’s vote to confirm Sparkle Sooknanan as a federal judge for the United States District Court of the District of Columbia:
“The entire nation should celebrate the great news that Sparkle Sooknanan will become a federal judge. Having immigrated to the United States for college and having devoted a good portion of her career to public service and pro bono work, she is in many ways the embodiment of the American dream. The district court in Washington, D.C. decides many important matters, and having a judge of Sparkle Sooknanan’s caliber, character, and lived experience on that court will have a huge impact.
Ms. Sooknanan has been a champion of civil rights as a leader in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the crown jewel of the agency. She has worked hard to address discrimination facing Black people, other people of color, domestic violence victims, and people with disabilities. At a time when there has been such an assault on equal rights, it is especially important to have judges like Ms. Sooknanan who know what it means to enforce the law and not act based on ideology.
We thank each of the senators who voted for her confirmation.”
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to mobilize the nation’s leading lawyers as agents for change in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Lawyers’ Committee uses legal advocacy to achieve racial justice, fighting inside and outside the courts to ensure that Black people and other people of color have the voice, opportunity, and power to make the promises of our democracy real. The Lawyers’ Committee implements its mission and objectives by marshaling the pro bono resources of the bar for litigation, public policy, advocacy and other forms of service by lawyers to the cause of civil rights.
