Jamal Whitehead

Jamal Whitehead (born 1979)[1] is an American lawyer who is the nominee to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Jamal Whitehead
Personal details
Born
Jamal Norman Whitehead

1979 (age 43–44)
Turnersville, New Jersey, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Washington (BA)
Seattle University (JD)

Education

Whitehead earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Washington in 2004 and a Juris Doctor from the Seattle University School of Law in 2007.[2]

Career

From 2007 to 2010, Whitehead worked as an attorney at Garvey Schubert Barer in Seattle. From 2010 to 2014, he served as a senior trial attorney in the Seattle office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. From 2014 to 2016, he served as an assistant United States attorney for the Western District of Washington. Since 2016, he has been a shareholder at Schroeter Goldmark & Bender in Seattle.[3] Whitehead is a past president of the Loren Miller Bar Association, Washington's oldest and largest minority bar.[4]

Notable cases
  • In 2012, Whitehead represented the Equal Opportunity Commission, when they sued Cottonwood Financial for discriminating against an employee based on his diagnosis of bipolar disorder. U.S. District Judge Edward F. Shea entered a judgment for $56,500 against Cottonwood Financial due to the company violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) when it fired an employee from its Walla Walla, Washington store.[5]
  • In 2020, Whitehead in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, represented Dr. Ming Lin who sued the hospital he worked at, St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, Washington. Dr. Lin alleged that he was terminated for expressing concern about his hospital’s Covid-19 readiness policy.[6]
  • In 2021, Whitehead represented private plaintiffs when they sued a private prison, GEO Group for paying incarcerated ICE detainees $1 a day in its work program. The state of Washington stated the company must pay detainees the state minimum wage, just as other private corporations doing contract work with the state are required to.[7]

Nomination to district court

On July 13, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Whitehead to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. President Biden nominated Whitehead to the seat vacated by Judge Richard A. Jones, who assumed senior status on September 5, 2022.[8] On September 21, 2022, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[9] On December 1, 2022, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote.[10] On January 3, 2023, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate; he was renominated later the same day.[11] On February 2, 2023, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote.[12] His nomination is pending before the United States Senate.

Personal life

During her introduction in front of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, senator Patty Murray said that Whitehead is the first judicial nominee by President Joe Biden to have a physical disability (he was born with a femur that didn't develop and has a prosthetic leg).[9][13][14]

References
  1. "Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  2. "Jamal Whitehead | Schroeter Goldmark & Bender, Seattle Law Firm & Trial Lawyers". sgb-law.com. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  3. "President Biden Names Twenty-Second Round of Judicial Nominees". The White House. July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  4. Sheppard, Cameron (1 August 2021). "King County Council OKs millions for courts overwhelmed by pandemic backlog". Auburn Reporter. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  5. "EEOC Wins Disability Discrimination Suit Against Payday Lender 'The Cash Store'".
  6. Stone, Will (29 May 2020). "An ER Doctor Lost His Job After Criticizing His Hospital on COVID-19. Now He's Suing". NPR.
  7. "ICE Contractor Trial over Dollar-A-Day Wages Set for June - Law360".
  8. "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. July 13, 2022. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  9. "Nominations". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. September 21, 2022.
  10. "Results of Executive Business Meeting – December 1, 2022" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  11. "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. January 3, 2023.
  12. "Results of Executive Business Meeting – February 2, 2023" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
  13. "Battling Bias, They Learn from Anne Frank". Seattle Times.
  14. "Judge Pick with Disability Raises Hopes for a Group Often Unseen".



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