For Immediate Release

Date: March 6, 2024

CONTACT:  Alex Nguyen (Schumer), [email protected]

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke before the Senate Judiciary Committee, introducing Magistrate Judge Sanket Bulsara, nominated by President Biden to serve as District Judge for the Eastern District of New York. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank you Ranking Member Graham, my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee. As you know, I enjoyed serving my time on the committee, both for sixteen years in the House and sixteen years in the Senate on the Judiciary Committee

So, I’m honored to come before the committee today to introduce a truly remarkable nominee, Sanket Bulsara, who I was proud to recommend to President Biden to serve as a District Judge for the Eastern District of New York, which includes Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. That’s seven million people in that one district.

Judge Bulsara made history in 2017 as the first South Asian American judge to serve in any court within the Second Circuit when he was appointed the Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District.

New York’s South Asian population is one of the fastest growing in New York and in America, I think. We’re very proud to have more South Asians in the New York metropolitan area than anywhere else, and they’re great, hard-working, family-oriented, law-abiding, great people and we love them. I try to make the bench look more like New York and more like America, and this is one example of that.

Before I begin, I want to take a moment to recognize Judge Bulsara’s wife, Chrissy DeLorenzo, a professor at one of the great medical schools in New York, Stony Brook, and she is with us here this morning, as you can see.

Judge Bulsara is – I’ll forgive him – a Bronx boy, but Chrissy is from Brooklyn so he likes to say he married into Brooklyn.

I also understand that Judge’s Bulsara’s parents, Jay and Aruna, are watching the hearing live from Los Angeles.

And Judge Bulsara’s in-laws, Tom and Loretta, are also watching live from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I’m sure they’re proud too.

Judge Bulsara is the epitome of the American Dream: a proud son of hard-working immigrant parents from India and Kenya who taught him the value of public service at an early age. His father was an engineer for the City of New York for 33 years, who not only raised his son to be a good Yankees fan, but even worked on the renovations of the original Yankee stadium in 1974. Before the renovations, I often got the cheap seats where you sat behind a pole, but they didn’t have that in the new stadium. His mother went to community college at night to become a nurse working with patients in low-income communities.

So, Judge Bulsara’s parents dedicated their lives to public service. I know he’s proud to be following in their footsteps. These are the great American Dream stories. We hear them every day in New York and around the country. It makes us so proud and so optimistic about the future of our country, which I am.

Judge Bulsara has all the qualities of a first-rate jurist. His colleagues and peers have praised his “excellent judgment” and he has been described by those who know him well as brilliant, ethical, even-keeled, energetic, hard-working. Those are some of the words my judicial panel used when they met him.

His credentials are undeniable: he’s a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law, he clerked for Judge John Koeltl of the Southern District of New York. After years in private practice, he worked to protect investors and our community’s financial markets at the SEC, where he served as Acting General Counsel in 2017.

Judge Bulsara also has a broad range of pro-bono work, and has been recognized for his outstanding representation of victims of domestic violence. He’s also worked to defend the rights of the incarcerated and individuals on death row.

And, again, he made history in 2017 as the first South Asian American federal judge on any court in the Second Circuit when he was appointed the Magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of New York, where he served honorably since. I’ve appointed great people to that bench.

In short, Mr. Chairman, our courts need more people like Sanket Bulsara.

The Democratic Majority has been very proud of confirming scores of highly qualified, diverse judges– nearly 180 judges in fact –to the federal bench. Thank you, Chairman Durbin and Ranking Member Graham, and everyone else who has cooperated to help us reach that number.

These judges are reshaping the judiciary for the better, not only by making our courts look more like America, but by restoring trust and balance on the bench through their broad range of experience. I am confident that Judge Bulsara will serve with distinction. That’s why I’m proud to support his nomination.

I want to thank the Judge and his wife for being here. I want to thank the members of the committee once again and my colleagues on the committee for the opportunity to be here today. And I look forward to working with you to confirm more judges in the weeks and months ahead. Thank you.

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