Sunil Harjani gets U.S. Senate confirmation to be federal district judge for the Northern District of Illinois

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 53-46 to confirm federal Magistrate Judge Sunil Harjani to be a federal district court judge on the Chicago-based Northern District of Illinois.

Harjani, who was born in Joliet and earned bachelor’s and law degrees from Northwestern University, will become the sixth judge President Joe Biden has appointed to the Northern District of Illinois. He fills the seat vacated by Judge Thomas Durkin, who took a form of semi-retirement in December.

Harjani worked in private law practice for three years and then was a Chicago-based lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission before becoming a federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Illinois, handling cases related to securities and commodities fraud. In 2019, the judges on the Northern District of Illinois selected him to be a federal magistrate judge. Harjani earned his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern in 1997 and a law degree from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law in 2000, and he later served for one year as a law clerk for Judge Suzanne Conlon of the Northern District.

In January, Biden nominated Harjani to be a federal district judge after Sens. Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth recommended him in November to the White House as a potential judicial nominee. According to his U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, Harjani submitted an application to the senators’ screening committee in September, and interviewed with both Durbin and Duckworth in November. He then interviewed with several attorneys from the White House counsel’s office several days later.

At Harjani’s U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in February, Harjani said he and his wife are “proud Illinoisans” and told senators that he viewed the opportunity to serve as a federal district court judge as “a continuation of my American dream and my public service journey.”

All Democratic senators present — along with two senators who caucus with Democrats — voted on Tuesday to confirm Harjani, as did three Republican senators.

“Judge Harjani is the most recent of many well-qualified, diverse nominees whom … Durbin has recommended and President Biden has nominated and confirmed,” said University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias, a longtime scholar of federal judicial selection. “Harjani has substantial relevant experience. Most recently he has served since 2019 as a magistrate judge on the Northern District of Illinois, and that is the most relevant experience for serving as a district judge.”

Tobias added that Tuesday’s 53-46 confirmation vote “reflects the lockstep voting in which the GOP caucus engages, especially in an election year. Harjani had a rather smooth hearing in which he fully and clearly answered all GOP members’ questions, and he secured (committee) approval on a 12-9 vote with ranking member Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., voting favorably.”

In a statement after his confirmation, Harjani thanked Biden, Durbin and Duckworth for their support.

“I look forward to starting work with my new colleagues who work hard every day to uphold the rule of law and help people resolve their disputes fairly and impartially and who do so with integrity and humility,” he said.

After the vote, Durbin and Duckworth released a statement noting that Harjani “was highly regarded by our screening committee and brings strong qualifications and a wealth of courtroom experience — including as a magistrate judge for the Northern District since 2019 — that will strengthen our federal bench.”

There are no current vacancies on the 23-judge Northern District of Illinois. However, Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer has announced that she will take a form of semi-retirement in August, and Biden has nominated federal prosecutor Georgia Alexakis to succeed her. And last month, Biden nominated Judge Nancy Maldonado, who was confirmed to a district court judgeship on the Northern District in 2022, to serve as a judge on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Maldonado would replace 7th Circuit Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner, who is retiring.

Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.