In Vanita, US trusts: Desi picked as acting attorney general

'Vanita Gupta is the greatest civil rights lawyer of her generation.'

Praise came flying in from all corners after Vanita Gupta is appointed as the acting US Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports from Washington, DC on the historical appointment.

'Vanita has spent her entire career working to ensure that our nation lives up to its promise of equal justice for all,' United States Attorney General Eric Holder said of Vanita Gupta, who has been appointed as the acting US Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights division.

Gupta, 39, a Philadelphia-born, Yale University and New York University School of Law alumnus, is scheduled to begin work at the Department of Justice on October 20, and will succeed Molly Moran, who will become Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General.

Once President Obama nominates her and if she is confirmed by the US Senate, Gupta will become the point person in the administration for enforcing the country's civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion and national origin, and head a team of over 700 lawyers nationwide.

'Even as she has done trailblazing work as a civil rights lawyer,' Holder said of her appointment, 'Vanita is also known as a unifier and consensus builder,' and noted, 'She has a knack for bridging differences and building coalitions to drive progress.'

'I am certain that Vanita will serve as a sound steward of this critical division,' Holder predicted.

Gupta shot into prominence when she won the release of 38 wrongly-accused African Americans in Tulia, Texas while working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Legal Defense and Education Fund in 2004 when her legal team found that the defendants had been framed and evidence tampered with by the predominantly white Tulia police.

Not only were all of the defendants pardoned in 2003 by Texas Governor Rick Perry, but Gupta also negotiated a $5 million (Rs 30.8 crore/Rs 308 million) settlement for the defendants for wrongful incarceration and other false indictments.

In 2004, she was the first winner of the India Abroad Publisher's Special Award for Outstanding Achievement, the newspaper owned and published by Rediff.com

Prior to her historic appointment to the Department of Justice, Gupta served as Deputy Legal Director at the American Civil Liberties Union and Director of its Centre for Justice. She was also an attorney for its Racial Justice Programme.

Over her career, Gupta has earned a reputation for working closely and collaboratively with law enforcement, departments of corrections and across the political spectrum to advance smart policing and criminal justice reforms.

During the past few years, through her work with the American Civil Liberties Union, she has been involved in reform initiatives around the country pertaining to policing, sentencing, drug policy and criminal law.

One of her closest friends, another trailblazing human rights lawyer, Amrit Singh, now with the Open Society Justice Initiative, was ecstatic over Gupta's appointment and said, "I am delighted to hear about Vanita's well-deserved appointment. I have the deepest respect and admiration for her commitment to civil rights issues and her capacity to effectively address these issues."

Subodh Chandra, a civil rights lawyer and former law director of Cleveland, Ohio, said, "Vanita Gupta is the greatest civil rights lawyer of her generation."

"By the age of 28, she had already saved 38 wrongfully convicted African-Americans in Tulia from incarceration. She has saved immigrant children from wrongful detentions," he noted.

Chandra, managing partner of Cleveland's Chandra Law Firm, said, "Vanita is a humble, kind, and confidence-inspiring public servant. And now, thanks to President Obama, she is slated to hold the highest, most storied, and historic civil rights post in our land to serve us all. This is a great Indian-American story. Indeed, this is a great American story."

• Also read: Vanita: Sworn to Justice