Sharad Desai – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona

The brother of Ninth Circuit Judge Roopali Desai, Phoenix based attorney Sharad Desai is vying to become the first Indian American judge on the federal district court bench in Arizona.

Background

Born to an Indian immigrant family in Phoenix, Desai received a joint B.S. and B.A. from the University of Arizona in 2003 and then a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 2006. Desai then returned to Arizona to clerk for Arizona Supreme Court Justice Rebecca White Berch.

After his clerkship, Desai joined Osborn Maledon, P.A. in Phoenix. He became a Member with the firm in 2012. In 2015, he shifted to Honeywell International Inc., a business conglomerate working in aerospace and technology, among other areas, where he serves as Vice President and General Counsel.

History of the Seat

Desai has been nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, to a seat to be vacated on October 21, 2024, when Judge G. Murray Snow takes senior status.

Legal Experience

After his clerkship, Desai worked in litigation at Osborn Maledon, P.A. While at the firm, Desai represented a class of retired Arizona judges in a class action suit against a change in the calculations of pension benefit increases for judges. See Fields v. Elected Officials’ Retirement Plan, 320 P.3d 1160 (Ariz. 2014). Desai secured a victory for the class in trial court, which was affirmed by the Arizona Supreme Court. See id.

While at the firm, Desai was appointed by the Arizona District Court to represent a class of pretrial detainees in litigation by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office seeking to terminate consent agreements overseeing conditions in their jails. See Graves v. Arpaio, 48 F. Supp. 3d 1318 (D. Ariz. 2014). Desai maintained his representation of the class until he left the firm in 2015.

On the pro bono side, Desai represented a Nevada prisoner seeking recovery for costs from litigation challenging a disciplinary hearing against him. As part of his representation, Desai briefed and argued the appeal before the Ninth Circuit. See Jones v. McDaniel, 607 F. App’x 710 (9th Cir. 2015).

For the last nine years at Honeywell International Inc., Desai has served as a Counsel, advising various divisions of the company, and overseeing litigation in general. However, he has not appeared in court during this time. Nonetheless, Desai has supervised litigation, including in a $38 million product liability suit involving a Honeywell autopilot on an aircraft, which ended in a jury verdict in Honeywell’s favor after a two week trial. See Egbers v. Honeywell, Int’l, Cook County Circuit Ct. Case No. 06 L 6992 (Ill. 2016).

Overall Assessment

Perhaps more than any other Senator, Senator Kirsten Synema has been able to grease the wheels for nominees from her state. The three nominees to Arizona courts from the Biden Administration have each drawn more than 60 senators in support, a remarkable feat, given that only around 20% of the Administration’s judicial nominees have drawn that level of support.

While Desai is unlikely to get the same level of support, given the fact that his nomination will almost certainly be considered in the lame duck session, it is possible that Sinema will be able to work her magic a fourth time and ensure that Desai joins the bench in due course.

1,386 Comments

  1. star0garnet's avatar

    Does anybody know which of Biden’s Black judicial nominees are first/second/third generation immigrants or have (recent) mixed ancestry? I know Abudu and Frimpong are Ghanaian, Sooknanan is Trinidadian, Kelley is part Japanese, and Griggsby is part Native.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. tsb1991's avatar

    I also realized with Pennell’s confirmation, all but two of the judges in the Washington district courts are Biden appointees, while the remaining two are Obama appointees, so would that make the state of Washington a safe spot to forum shop? I guess you can give kudos to Cantwell and Murray for holding the line during the Trump presidency (which I did see the two of them talking to Murkowski for a bit before she voted against Pennell, maybe they were trying to lobby her for a vote?).

    I’d think the other safe spot to forum shop over the next few years would be the MA District Court and then the First Circuit, it’d probably be the most action you’d see out of the federal courts in this neck of the woods in a while…

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Zack's avatar

    With the 9th Circuit, the damage done under Trump was the two flip of the seats held by Carter judges and one moderate Clinton judge.
    That made the liberal majority which had already been narrowed under George W get even worse and I sadly think with Trump’s second term we will see that narrow majority get even worse, especially since Ronald Gould refused to take senior status under Biden even with his chronic health issues.
    That after Robert King is the judge I’m most angry with not taking senior status.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Thomas's avatar

      But at a lifetime appointment it’s the judge himself and no one else who decide when he will leave – and some of them won’t do it until their physical end.

      Ronald Gould is a fighter – he overcame so much obstacles with his illness and the life expectation here is in some cases just forty years – and he’s still there with seventy-six years – what is his benefit of a ligher caseload and spending more time at home? I know many people dislike such a perspective, but in the end that’s the decision of the judge and very private reasons.

      As we are now switfly moving to the end of Biden’s term and the Democratic Senate majority, we still have many open seats to fill, so many more open vacancies could have been open for Trump, the Senate has confirmed five circuit judges this year and should now do the same number in five weeks.

      Liked by 2 people

    • Dequan's avatar

      Good. It seems like two Republicans are out so with Harris in Hawaii, being in the cots. The senators should be well rested & they are about to have another recess week off too. I’ll chip in for the pizza & coffee if need be. In the words of the Pennsylvania governor… Get sh*t done

      Like

      • Rick's avatar

        Only one senator was out for the Ali confirmation

        I’m little surprised Collins and Murkowski are going along with this right wing blockade. The fierce opposition we’re seeing now from senate Republicans is nothing but entitlement. They think they are the only ones who can fill court seats. They filled plenty of seats in the lame duck 2020, including a hearing for Barret’s replacement on the 7th circuit right before Thanksgiving (Manchin and Sinema voted for him to)

        Liked by 1 person

      • Gavi's avatar

        @Rick?

        “I’m little surprised Collins and Murkowski are going along with this right wing [insert anything here]”

        Really? It’s 2024 and this still surprises you? I hope you are very prepared to keep saying this same thing on different occasions for the next 4 years.

        Liked by 2 people

  5. Joe's avatar

    I agree. This push has been badly needed and goes such a long way to clearing the backlog.

    Assuming all of them get across the finish line there will still be a lot of work to be done. 4 Appellate nominees, potentially 8 district, plus all of the DC judges, the Guam judge, and other executive positions that have fixed terms.

    On top of that is the Defense Bill and the Spending Bill. It’ll be a busy three weeks.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Zack's avatar

    From the judicial nominees being voted to the Senate Floor tomorrow, I see Brindisi being pushed to the front of the line, as I see him as having the hardest time getting confirmed of the district court judges after this week that can be confirmed and I think Schumer wants to get that over with sooner versus later.
    Have to wait and see.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. tsb1991's avatar

    If the Senate clears the deck overnight do they have anything really scheduled for Thursday? If Schumer sends out cloture motions tomorrow they’d either have to be local DC judges or an appeals court nominee since there won’t be any district judges to file on, and any nominees reported out tomorrow won’t be on the calendar until Friday at a minimum.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Gavi's avatar

    I have simply never seen anything like the collective Republican freak out that’s going on right now with the Senate confirming judges. And they do this without a hint of self-awareness of their staggering hypocrisy:

    https://www.wsj.com/opinion/biden-judges-republican-senators-absent-jd-vance-marco-rubio-donald-trump-chuck-schumer-b2c5d99a?st=xQsVE4

    This doesn’t even compare to the 2014 lame duck after Dems lost the Senate. Like i have been saying, don’t count on R absences to get the rest of the nominees confirmed. I hope VP Harris is ready to really live in her Senate office right off the floor when she gets back from vacation.

    Also, in response to someone’s comment above about the timing of her vacation, news report said that VP Harris delayed her vacation after the election in order to be available for tiebreaking votes. However, Schumer (well, duh!) didn’t do a good job coordinating it. So instead of using her after the senate returned, he’s calling up the tough votes this week when she’s off. I am not making any excuses for her. But the Schumer as usual is the one who still sucks.

    Liked by 1 person

  10. humanfault's avatar

    The blanket Republican opposition to judges was to be expected but it is a bit wild at the same time. It’s crazy that April Perry received the exact same number of votes as Mustafa Kasubhai (both being 51-44). If Perry had just been put up for a vote in January I could easily have seen her get like 5 Republican votes in favor.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Mike's avatar

      Republicans only have supermajority in NC because they convinced a democrat to switch seats in 2022 and then rewarded her by drawing her up a nice red state legislature seat when they took control of the state supreme court after 2022 and it reversed a no gerrymandering ruling from the prior year.

      Dems always play catch up bc Republicans literally have to kill voters kids or parents to lose.

      Clinton has one of the most successful presidencies and balances the budget – elect Bush

      Bush starts war that kills thousands of Americans.

      Obama uses a 60 seat supermajority to give healthcare to 30m – elect Trump

      Trump incompetence kills 500k Americans

      Biden uses 50 seat majority to pass generational infrastructure funding, onboards manufacturing, supercharges clean energy – Elect Trump again.

      There is no easier job in America than being a Republican politician, all you have to do to stay in power is not kill your supporters.

      Liked by 2 people

  12. Mike's avatar

    Bernie come on man, you really gonna waste 3 hours on these discharge petitions, nobody is cutting aid to Israel 2 months before Republicans control all branches of the government.

    We got judges to confirm and Braun is probably coming back tomorrow!

    Liked by 1 person

  13. Mike's avatar

    I think that’s it, all 3 discharge votes are done.

    I really wish they’d made a deal with Kennedy when they had the chance, hell give him 3 Bush republicans for 1 Obama Dem just anything to avoid more FedSoc hacks.

    It’s not like Trump wasn’t in the running to win the election a year ago.

    Liked by 1 person

      • humanfault's avatar

        To be fair, Kennedy has been saying that about Biden’s Judicial nominees since 2021 and it didn’t change his willingness to work with Biden. I don’t think it was all of a sudden Kennedy decided to become Josh Hawley on Louisiana judicial nominees. I think it was more so that the election was around the corner and there was a pretty good chance he could just appoint a conservative in their place.

        Liked by 1 person

  16. Dequan's avatar

    All non judicial votes finally finished. On to judges. cloture vote for Sooknanan beginning at 10:26pm. Let’s see if Republicans require two-hour post cloture time or any fast tracking in exchange for no session tomorrow.

    Like

      • Dequan's avatar

        I hope Durbin Whipped both Manchin & Sinema for the remaining nominees tonight. If they vote no on any of them, Schumer will have to either withdraw their cloture motion or make a motion to reconsider. I knew it was absolutely dumb to let Harris go to Hawaii before they recessed.

        Like for God’s sake, she couldn’t have left tomorrow night? How idiotic unless they got confirmation from Manchin & Sinema they will play ball for all nine nominees. Sparkle Sooknanan & Catherine Henry should be the two most liberal nominees left out of the nine. I think the other seven should be ok if not.

        Like

  19. tsb1991's avatar

    Got to the party late, was doing some upgrades at work. Not sure who the holdout is, either they’re waiting for that Senator to vote or if they insist the vote take an hour, which is how long these votes normally last, the vote started 45 minutes ago and there’s 15 minutes left.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Dequan's avatar

    Schumer speaking. He said they will vote for cloture on the first four nominees, waiving the 2 hour wait between each vote. Then they will vote on cloture on the next four nominees tomorrow. All post cloture time will be expired on Monday, December 2nd & they can vote to confirm after that. Also he withdrew the Desai cloture motion & Republicans have agreed to allow a confirmation vote without a cloture vote on him at a later date.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Mike S.'s avatar

    I have been absent from commenting on this blog since I very erroneously felt optimistic about a Harris win and Dems (maybe) keeping the Senate (boy was I wrong…), but I have been watching as the Dems FINALLY grew a backbone and have been pushing through these nominees.

    As we all know, the D.C. district court is one of our most important courts. I am watching with joy as Ali was confirmed earlier, and Sooknanan is not far behind. And Braun just showed up out of nowhere to vote (man, gotta give credit to Republicans, they are good with getting their senators to show up), but we still pulled it off. Major cred to Manchin and Sinema for their votes (all things considered). We need Schumer to spend every free moment in voting for judges. Keep up in session until next Monday if you have to…

    Liked by 2 people

  27. Dequan's avatar

    Schumer wrap up. One change for tomorrow. Desai’s confirmation vote will happen tomorrow. All other confirmation votes will happen after the senate returns from Thanksgiving break. I don’t care if a Democrat Senator is sick as a dog, they better drag themselves into work for these last three weeks.

    Liked by 3 people

  28. Joe's avatar

    I slept through the votes last night I’m glad I did haha.

    A little bummed that we didn’t get the rush of confirmations we wanted, but at least we got 4 confirmed this week (5 once Desai is wrapped up tomorrow) and we have finished debate on 7 more. I hope that those 7 will be hammered out immediately once we get back.

    Lots of work to be done in these last three weeks. I hope Manchin and Sinema continue to play ball.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. Zack's avatar

    @Dequan, it’s an utter joke at this point that the Federalist Society claims to be politically neutral and that their judges are unbiased.
    It’s why I wish liberals/moderates would quit going to these conferences.
    Quit giving them any ounce of credibility when they deserve none.

    Liked by 1 person

  32. tsb1991's avatar

    Looking back at last night, the only thing I would maybe have done differently is get cloture invoked on everyone, especially given the sped-up votes, rather than saving two cloture votes for today. I swear to god you could probably get Dale Ho confirmed onto SCOTUS by unanimous consent if you threatened to keep the Senate in after Thursday afternoon.

    We know Sooknanan did get every Senate Democrat but Manchin did bail after that, was he probably a no on everyone else but didn’t want to derail the night so Schumer let him go home early? Given that Collins was a yes on Hwang Manchin should be a yes on Hwang as well (and that was the only nominee last night that even got a Republican vote).

    So I believe Biden’s final four CDCA nominees will have all replaced George W. Bush appointees, the court probably won’t be fully staffed for long as you still have a Reagan, a Clinton, and a few other GWB appointees who could all easily take senior status.

    Getting the EDPA nominees confirmed is also important given that come January it’ll be Trump and McCormick calling the shots for any future PA vacancies (which are likely with the remaining Bush and a few Obama appointees eligible for senior status). Can’t imagine Fetterman being much of a negotiating person here or pushing back much on nominees, had Casey hung on they’d have much more leverage over Trump here.

    Finally, I hope there’s some deal in place for the local DC judges for several reasons, for several reasons, one being you’d rather have Biden appointees filling those seats and not Trump, the second being the court has been strained enough with the vacancies, and if you leave those seats vacant they’d be vacant for a pretty long while IMO since they tend to be lower priority for the Senate to act on and it’ll take Trump months to have a vetting process setup here. You also have the two DC Appeals Court vacancies here, I think if unfilled Trump has a shot at flipping that court since I think two of the Obama appointees’ term ends during Trump’s presidency, giving him up to four appointments here.

    Also, with today’s SJC meeting, I’m sure everyone will be a party-line vote and any fireworks here would be over Brindisi.

    Liked by 1 person

  33. Zack's avatar

    I will say the only thing in defense of Schumer is that McConnell didn’t have Manchin/Sinema types who would throw wrenches into the works.
    Also, Bernie’s bill was a complete waste of time that should have been used to confirming more judges and it irked me that we humored him when we don’t have time to spare.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. tsb1991's avatar

    Perry received her commission yesterday.

    One other thing I wanted to mention is that you’ve heard Schumer and other Democratic Senators say “Confirm as many judges as we can” during the lame duck. There’s some ambiguity there, especially considering they’ve lined up votes for every district nominee currently on the calendar. There’s nominees who won’t receive a hearing and then question marks over Brindisi/Mangi/Park at a minimum, does that call into question Lipez/Campbell?

    Liked by 1 person

  35. Dequan's avatar

    Senator Durbin started off the SJC executive meeting talking about Senator Grassley’s commitment to keeping blue slips for district court vacancies. He said he was disappointed some Republican senators decided not to work with the administration to fill vacancies in their home state but that was their prerogative. Senator Klobachar then wished Durbin a happy birthday.

    Senator Graham spoke about the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court. He reminded everyone that neither Israel nor the USA are members.

    All nominees were eventually voted out to the floor. All votes were 11 – 10.

    Like

  36. Zack's avatar

    Pretty clear at this point Republicans are going to vote no on all remaining nominees.
    Question is how long many of them will stick around the next three weeks to ensure things get dragged out.
    On Park/Mangi, one could forsee where the Democratic no votes (if there are any for Park) just don’t show up and have it where Harris is the tie breaker.
    Have to wait and see.

    Liked by 1 person

  37. star0garnet's avatar

    Homeland voted out the last two DC superior nominees yesterday, so now all eight are on the calendar. We’re sitting at roughly 164 pending viable civilian nominations (plus 26 that would be immediately dismissed by Trump, 20 whose term is passed, and the 4 non-viable district nominees). I’m curious/anxious to see just how many Schumer manages to get through in voice-vote packages. The Amtrak and USPS nominees are the main non-judicial nominees I could see getting floor votes.

    Liked by 1 person

      • Rick's avatar

        That’ can’t be true, if it is, only explanation is that Manchin and Sinema aren’t playing ball. Either that or Musk bribed them to vote NO on all circuit nominees,

        That deal is so bad to use a sports analogy, it would be like if the Philadelphia Eagles traded Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, and AJ Brown for a 7th round pick

        Liked by 1 person

      • Joe's avatar

        I really hope it is Gavi. Just can’t believe they would let GOP whining get in their heads that much and get in the way of confirming good judges. However, your report of what Schumers office said has me worried it’s true or mostly true.

        I suppose Stranch and Wynn could rescind their retirements and make it 2 vacancies instead of 4. But still, completely unacceptable in my opinion.

        Liked by 1 person

    • Dequan's avatar

      This better not be true. It absolutely better not be. Like I can’t even phantom this being true. If it is, Republicans deserve to win. Republicans deserve to be in charge. There is no way on God’s green Earth I can see allowing all four circuit court nominees not even getting a vote. Not even trying. Like I truly can’t imagine this being true.

      Like

  40. Gavi's avatar

    Maybe unfairly, but I am vibrating with rage. I just called Schumer’s DC office. They told me that they don’t want to preempt an official statement, so they can’t confirm or deny the report at this time. What the actual heck!?

    Liked by 1 person

  43. Gavi's avatar

    I am hoping against hope that this is a Fox News misfire. So far, Fox is the only one reporting this. I need to wait and see if Schumer is yet another statewide NY politician I will never again vote for.

    I’d think that a “deal” that “allows” the Senate majority to do its job to confirm four district court nominees for 4 appeals court nominees is a nonstarter for every sane person, even for Joe, our blog’s eternal optimist, everything-is-fine-even-though-the-house-is-on-fire.

    4 district court seats are no way equal to 4 circuit court seats. Hell. 4 district court seats are not even equal to 1 single appeals court seat. And before anyone tries to say that even McConnell had to leave few appeals court nominees unconfirmed: it’s not the same thing! McConnell ran out of time, plus those vacancies came late. If this is true, Schumer would be making this “deal” not because he runs out of time, but to *save* time to go home earlier. Big difference.

    Liked by 2 people

    • tsb1991's avatar

      The fact that it’s only FOX so far is why I’m holding out hope. If Schmidt or Lee negotiated this I’m sure they’d be gleefully saying something right now about how they got Trump four appeals court vacancies to fill.

      On the flipside, I’m wondering if there were Manchin/Sinema issues on the remaining appeals court nominees and as part of the deal they locked in their votes for the remaining district nominees.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Gavi's avatar

        You’re right. Let’s keep our powder dry until further reporting by more reputable sources.

        But I simply cannot see a flip side to this. Manchin/Sinema issues may not cause an appeals court nominee to fail. We simply don’t know and would have to wait until those votes are cast to see who actually show up.

        For the sake of argument, let’s say that the senate runs out of time to confirm the “fast-tracked” district court nominees. So what? Besides the DC district court vacancies, those are mostly blue slippable seats, which Trump would not be able to fill, assuming that the Rs are sticking to the blue slip norm. To give up 4 non-blue slippable seats for 4 trial court confirmation to go back home for turkey shopping would be nothing short of indefensible.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Dequan's avatar

        My head hurts thinking about the possibility of this deal being true. I think most people know I’m a pretty loyal Democrat yet have been critical when warranted. But this deal if true would make the Obama six judge Georgia deal look like a cakewalk in comparison. It’s a deal that is so bad, I don’t even think a bribe could get it approved. Like I literally can’t comprehend it being true & I’m pretty open minded when it comes ti Democrats being behind when it comes to the judiciary.

        Like

      • Joe's avatar

        If they simply can’t get Park and Mangi confirmed then that’s one thing. Put them up for a vote and let them fail I guess, at least you can say you tried.

        But Campbell and Lipez are very conventional nominees and should be able to get the caucus. In normal circumstances they might have gotten a a GOP vote or two.

        Liked by 2 people

      • lilee2122's avatar

        If this is true NYers need to vote Schumer out of office…Lipez is a conventional nominee and should be easily confirmed …. I would like to see Park and Mangi confirmed as those are the 2 the GOP would really have a fit over….plus they are the diversity we won’t see in the near future

        Liked by 1 person

  44. Zack's avatar

    Yea…if this is true then Schumer needs to be primaried, unacceptable to leave four circuit court nominees in the wind for Trump/Republicans to get a chance to fill.
    Those matter more then district court seats and if Manchin/Sinema are being pains, time it so they won’t be there.
    Let’s hope this isn’t true, because if it is, it’s political malpractice of the worst kind.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. Rick's avatar

    Again, if this “deal” is true, its likely because people were bribed. Seriously, it’s so bad that the only explanation is that people were paid off. You don’t hand over 4 Circuit court seats for no valid reason, especially to a subhuman creature like Trump. These 4 nominees had a hearing, got thru the SJC, 2 are from states with 2 Democratic senators. There is simply no other explanation than people were bribed if this insane deal is accurate

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dequan's avatar

      I am raging mad. My blood is boiling. I am fully on board with seeing this old guard of the Democrat Party getting primaried or stepping out gracefully. This is beyond shameful. I don’t care if the judges rescind so Trump only gets to fill 2 of the 4 seats. This is beyond comprehension. Democrats wouldn’t have even press send on an email to a majority leader McConnell with an offer this bad if the situation was reversed.

      Like

    • tsb1991's avatar

      What’s also baffling is that all Democrats really got out of it was that there wouldn’t be forced votes on moving to legislative/executive session to consider the remaining nominees. This past week was arguably their biggest hurdle to file cloture on nine nominees, the next round would have only been five (the ones reported out of the SJC today), which you could have handled the Monday you’re back from the break and then one for the final two nominees who had their hearing earlier in the week.

      I’d hope that a lame duck when you’ll be out of the presidency and the Senate would be an all-hands-on-deck moment, but guess not…

      Liked by 1 person

  49. Hank's avatar

    Got busy and stopped following judicial nominations for a bit, but this morning’s news is so outrageous that I am back. This “deal” is so bad on its face that I suspect it’s something to do with Manchin/Sinema – especially given that Sinema’s district court nominee is getting confirmed without a cloture vote (that being said, I’ll never foreclose the possibility that Schumer is just actually this incompetent).

    If this deal really does hold up, then I really, really hope that Stranch and Wynn rescind their senior status. They’re both in their early 70s, so sticking around for another 8-10 years is not ideal but better than seeing their seats filled by Trump. Then Trump only gets the 2 seats on CA3 (still a disaster because that gives the Rs a 8-6 majority) and 1 seat on CA1, and 1 circuit judge alone isn’t able to do anything.

    And does this mean Collins is a no on Lipez after she returned a blue slip? Otherwise Lipez would probably get through with Manchin + Collins even if Sinema is being her slimy self.

    What a disastrous ending to Senate Dems’ tenure in the majority–if anything, they should’ve made the reverse trade and agreed to give up the district nominees to get Manchin/Sinema on board with the circuit noms.

    Liked by 1 person

  50. Zack's avatar

    My guess is Manchin/Sinema got bribed and told Schumer no deal on Park etc.
    As for Mangi, yea, it was clear the votes weren’t there yet Biden/Schumer etc. were so afraid of angering Muslims they didn’t pull his nomination.
    That’s malpractice and it means Republicans get to flip the 3rd Circuit.
    Nice job there, especially since we lost the Muslim vote in many places anyway (and not just due to Gaza.)

    Liked by 2 people

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