Associate Attorney General of the US, Indian-American Vanita Gupta, will step down from the post in February 2024, an official release said on Thursday. Gupta, the first woman of colour to serve as the Department of Justice's third-highest ranking official, led its "Reproductive Rights Taskforce to defend the reproductive freedoms that are protected by federal law," a statement by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said.The 49-year-old has served as the Associate Attorney General since confirmation by the Senate in 2021 and will depart from the post in February 2024, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).
Who is Vanita Gupta?
Gupta was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Indian immigrant parents.[8] She is the daughter of Muzaffarnagar-born businessman Rajiv L. Gupta and Kamla Varshney.
As a child, Gupta regularly moved with her family, and lived in the United Kingdom and France before returning to Philadelphia.
She received her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Yale University.Gupta credits her experience at Yale with helping form her "passion for social activism".She received her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law in 2001.
Gupta's first case, while working for the Legal Defense Fund directly after law school, involved 40 African Americans and six white or Latino people who were romantic partners of African Americans in Tulia, Texas.
They had been convicted by all-white juries of dealing drugs.
In 2017, Gupta became president and chief executive officer of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. In this role, she criticized the Trump administration for its response to the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally and accused then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions of trying to increase mass incarceration.
In June 2020, Gupta testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the murder of George Floyd and the need to end police brutality in the United States.
In October 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Gupta as the United States Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and head of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.
On January 7, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Gupta to serve as the United States Associate Attorney General. On March 9, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on her nomination.
As a nominee, Gupta pledged to support strong antitrust enforcement by the DOJ if confirmed.Gupta was sworn in on April 22, 2021. On April 27, 2022, she announced the launch of the National Law Enforcement Knowledge Lab, an initiative to create a "free, voluntary one-stop-shop for information, guidance and training for law enforcement agencies."
Gupta is married to Chinh Q. Le, the legal director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia.They have two sons.