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Amit Priyavadan Mehta
2014 - Present
10
2021 - Present
2028
4
Amit Priyavadan Mehta is a federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He has served on the court since 2014.[1]
Mehta is also a judge on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He was appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts on June 1, 2021.[2]
Early life and education
A native of Patan, in the Gujarat state of India, Mehta earned his B.A. from Georgetown University in 1993 and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1997.[1]
Professional career
- 2021-Present: Judge, United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
- 2014-Present: Judge, United States District Court for the District of Columbia
- 2007-2014: Private practice, Washington, D.C.
- 2002-2007: Staff attorney, Public Defender Service, District of Columbia
- 1999-2002: Private practice, Washington, D.C.
- 1998-1999: Law clerk, Hon. Susan Graber, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
- 1997-1998: Private practice, San Francisco, Calif.[1]
Judicial career
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (2021-present)
Mehta is a judge on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He was appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts on June 1, 2021.[2]
District of Columbia (2014-Present)
 |
| Nominee Information |
| Name: Amit Priyavada Mehta |
| Court: United States District Court for the District of Columbia |
| Progress |
| Confirmed 138 days after nomination. |
 Nominated: July 31, 2014
|
| ABA Rating: Unanimously Qualified
|
| Questionnaire: Questionnaire |
| Hearing: September 17, 2014
|
| QFRs: QFRs (Hover over QFRs to read more) |
| Reported: November 20, 2014
|
| Confirmed: December 16, 2014
|
| Vote: Voice vote
|
Mehta received a nomination to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from President Barack Obama on July 31, 2014. The president said regarding Mehta's and other nominations:
| “ | I am pleased to nominate these distinguished individuals to serve on the United States District Court bench. I am confident they will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice.[3][4] | ” |
The American Bar Association rated Mehta Unanimously Qualified for the position.[5]
Hearings on Mehta's nomination were held before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 17, 2014, and his nomination was reported by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on November 20, 2014. Mehta was confirmed on a voice vote of the U.S. Senate on December 16, 2014, and he received his commission on December 19, 2014.[1][6]
Noteworthy cases
Google antitrust ruling (2024)
On August 5, 2024, Judge Amit Priyavadan Mehta ruled that Google violated antitrust laws by establishing a monopoly on internet search.[7]
The Department of Justice and 11 other states sued Google in 2020, alleging that Google maintains "monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising in the United States through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices."[8]
Google's President of Global Affairs Kent Walker said in a statement that Google plans to appeal the decision.[7]
Judge rules accounting firm should release Trump's records
On May 20, 2019, Judge Amit Priyavadan Mehta ruled that the accounting firm Mazars must release financial records regarding President Trump from before his time in office. Mehta wrote:[9]
| “ | History has shown that congressionally-exposed criminal conduct by the president or a high-ranking Executive Branch official can lead to legislation. It is simply not fathomable that a Constitution that grants Congress the power to remove a president for reasons including criminal behavior would deny Congress the power to investigate him for unlawful conduct -- past or present -- even without formally opening an impeachment inquiry.[4] | ” |
| —Amit Priyavadan Mehta (2019) | ||
The House Oversight Committee had sought the records via a subpoena of Mazars. Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D) said of Mehta's ruling: "The court recognized the basic, but crucial fact that Congress has authority to conduct investigations as part of our core function under the Constitution."[9]
Trump responded to the ruling, saying, "We disagree with that ruling, it's crazy...The Democrats were very upset with the Mueller report, as perhaps they should be."[9]
See also
- United States District Court for the District of Columbia
- United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
External links
- Judge Mehta's biography from the Federal Judicial Center
- United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Federal Judicial Center, "Biography of Judge Amit Priyavadan Mehta," accessed May 10, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, "Current Membership," accessed October 23, 2023
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namednom1 - ↑ 4.0 4.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ American Bar Association, "Rating of Article III Judicial Nominees 113th Congress," accessed August 4, 2014
- ↑ United States Congress, "PN 1942 — Amit Priyavadan Mehta — The Judiciary," accessed May 10, 2017
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Axios, "Judge rules Google violated antitrust rules to maintain search monopoly," accessed August 6, 2024
- ↑ U.S. et al V Google LLC, decided August 5, 2024
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 CNN, "Judge orders Trump accounting firm to hand over records to Congress," May 20, 2019
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court 2021-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| Preceded by - |
United States District Court for the District of Columbia 2014-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominated | |||
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Active judges |
Chief Judge: James E. BoasbergChief Judge: Rudolph Contreras • Christopher Reid Cooper • Tanya S. Chutkan • Randolph D. Moss • Amit Priyavadan Mehta • Dabney Friedrich • Timothy J. Kelly (District of Columbia) • Trevor McFadden • Carl Nichols • Katherine E. Oler • Jia Cobb • Loren AliKhan • Ana Reyes • Judith Pipe • Amir Ali • Sparkle Sooknanan | ||
| Senior judges |
Barbara Rothstein • Royce Lamberth • Thomas Hogan • Emmet Sullivan • Henry Kennedy • Richard Roberts (District of Columbia) • Ellen Huvelle • Rosemary Collyer • Reggie Walton • John Bates • Richard Leon • Paul Friedman • Joyce Green (District of Columbia) • Amy B. Jackson • Beryl A. Howell • | ||
| Magistrate judges | G. Michael Harvey • Zia Faruqui • | ||
| Former Article III judges |
Michael Boudin • Thomas Anderson (District of Columbia) • William Matthew Merrick • David Kellogg Cartter • George Purnell Fisher • Abram Baldwin Olin • Andrew Wylie • David Campbell Humphreys • Arthur MacArthur • Walter Smith Cox • Alexander Burton Hagner • Charles Pinckney James • Edward Franklin Bingham • Martin Montgomery • Andrew Coyle Bradley • Charles Cleaves Cole • Louis Emory McComas • Thomas H. Anderson • Job Barnard • Harry Clabaugh • Ashley Mulgrave Gould • Jeter Connelly Pritchard • Wendell Phillips Stafford • Daniel Thew Wright (District of Columbia) • Thomas Jennings Bailey • James Harry Covington • William Hitz • Walter Irving McCoy • Frederick Lincoln Siddons • Adolph Hoehling • Peyton Gordon • Louis Oberdorfer • Gladys Kessler • James Robertson (District of Columbia) • Ricardo Urbina • Colleen Kollar-Kotelly • Harold Leventhal • Alfred Adams Wheat • Jesse Corcoran Adkins • Joseph Winston Cox • Oscar Raymond Luhring • Fred Dickinson Letts • Daniel William O'Donoghue • James McPherson Proctor (Federal judge) • Bolitha Laws • Thomas Goldsborough • James W. Morris (Federal judge) • Thomas Penfield Jackson • Walter Bastian • Edward Tamm • William Bryant • Howard Corcoran • Edward Curran • Edward Eicher • Thomas Flannery • Oliver Gasch • Gerhard Gesell • June Green • Harold Greene • Stanley Harris • George Hart • Norma Johnson • Alexander Holtzoff • William Jones (District of Columbia) • Richmond Keech • James Kirkland • Burnita Matthews • Joseph McGarraghy • Matthew McGuire • Charles McLaughlin • John Penn • David Pine • John Pratt • George Revercomb • Charles Richey • Aubrey Robinson • Spottswood Robinson • Henry Schweinhaut • John Sirica • John Lewis Smith (United States District Court for the District of Columbia judge) • Stanley Sporkin • Joseph Waddy • Leonard Walsh • Luther Youngdahl • Barrington Daniels Parker, Sr. • Florence Pan • Robert Leon Wilkins • Ketanji Brown Jackson • | ||
| Former Chief judges |
David Kellogg Cartter • Edward Franklin Bingham • Harry Clabaugh • James Harry Covington • Walter Irving McCoy • Royce Lamberth • Thomas Hogan • Alfred Adams Wheat • Fred Dickinson Letts • Bolitha Laws • William Bryant • Edward Curran • Edward Eicher • George Hart • Norma Johnson • William Jones (District of Columbia) • Richmond Keech • Matthew McGuire • John Penn • David Pine • Aubrey Robinson • John Sirica • John Lewis Smith (United States District Court for the District of Columbia judge) • Beryl A. Howell • | ||
