New Delhi: She is an American with roots in India and Jamaica, and she is making waves. You probably think it’s a reference to US Vice-President Kamala Harris, but this report is actually about a US judge who is presiding over the election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
Tanya S. Chutkan, 61, has become somewhat of a celebrity in light of her assignment to the case.
Whether it’s clothing stores selling T-Shirts printed with phrases from her rulings, or her beefed-up security on account of death threats, Judge Tanya Chutkan has been in the eye of the storm. But this isn’t her first rodeo.
An Obama appointee and a former public defender, Chutkan is known for her tough judgments on federal cases related to the 6 January Capitol riots by Trump supporters accused of attempting to thwart the results of the 2020 election.
For example, she sentenced a Florida man charged with attacking police with a fire extinguisher to five years in prison.
In 2019, she temporarily halted the Trump administration’s plans to resume federal executions and, in 2021, rejected his request to stop a US Congress committee investigating the 6 January riots from obtaining White House documents from his administration. “Presidents are not kings,” she said in her ruling in that case.
Born in Kingston
Chutkan was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1962 to an Indo-Jamaican father and an Afro-Jamaican mother. Her father Winston Chutkan was one of Jamaica’s first orthopaedic surgeons and was well-known by local athletes.
He is believed to be descended from indentured labourers sent from India to Jamaica by the British empire between 1845 and 1917.
In Kingston, Tanya Chutkan studied at St Andrew High School for Girls and was a dancer with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, as reported by Jamaican radio station Nationwide 90FM.
She was 10 when her family immigrated to the US.
In the US, she attended George Washington University and graduated with a degree in economics in 1984. Three years later, she obtained a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she also served as an associate editor of the Law Review.
A legal career followed.
She served as a trial attorney at the District of Columbia Public Defender Service for around a decade. She was involved in 30 cases and argued two on appeal, covering issues ranging from homicide to domestic violence.
She subsequently worked for a law firm, primarily focussing on private enforcement of antitrust laws where she engaged in both civil and criminal litigation.
Her big break came in 2014, when the Obama administration nominated her as a US district judge for the District of Columbia. US Congresswoman Eleanor Norton, a Democrat, was her biggest proponent.
During her Senate confirmation hearing, Chutkan was asked about her judicial philosophy. “The ideal judge has always been for me one who is open-minded, fair, and prepared,” she said. “Impartiality is bedrock.”
In June 2014, she was confirmed by the Senate in a 95-0 vote and quickly became a leading figure in the American legal community.
“Not only will Tanya Chutkan’s broad criminal and civil legal experience and professional reputation make her a very able addition to our distinguished bench, but she now becomes only the third African American woman to serve on the district court here,” said Norton in a congratulatory message at the time.
According to the website for Open Secrets, an organisation tracking transparency in government, Tanya Chutkan contributed $3,200 in political donations to Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
Also Read: Donald Trump seeks recusal of judge, change of venue in January 6 case