Senate Democrats might still be inclined to give Third Circuit nominee Adeel Mangi their rubber stamp, but his opposition is growing. I previously discussed some of Mangi’s alarming extremist affiliations and his admitted failure to disclose to the Senate Judiciary Committee his key role in a recent event sponsored by Hamas allies. Law enforcement organizations are also voicing their opposition to his confirmation amid revelations of his ties to anti-police groups.
The Legal Aid Society of New York was a vocal supporter of the Defund the Police movement and promoted a “March to Defund the NYPD” in 2021. The same group helped free hundreds of Rikers Island inmates during the pandemic. Mangi has donated to the Society and sat on their board from 2017 to 2021.
The Alliance of Families for Justice (AFJ) is an anti-law enforcement group whose founding director, Kathy Boudin—former member of the terrorist group Weather Underground—pleaded guilty to robbery and felony murder for her role in the 1981 Brink’s robbery, which left a security guard and two police officers dead. The AFJ has also called for the parole of black nationalists convicted of killing police officers and announced the Kathy Boudin Fellowship after her death in 2022. Mangi has served on their advisory board since 2019.
To date, ten law enforcement groups have sent letters pleading with Senate leaders not to confirm Mangi. The National Sheriffs’ Association wrote, “The fact that Mr. Mangi, as an Advisory Board member, aligns himself with an organization advocating for the release of convicted cop-killers is seriously disturbing.” His “association with the Alliance raises concerns about a potential bias against victims and law enforcement, which could impact his decision-making as a lifetime appointed judge.” The Police Chief’s Association of Rockland County similarly found that “this association gives rise to serious concerns regarding Adeel Abdullah Mangi’s character, discernment, and capacity to serve with impartiality on the Court of Appeals.” The National Troopers Coalition found “disqualifying” the “bias against law enforcement” reflected in Mangi’s work with the AFJ.
The National Association of Police Organizations and Phoenix Law Enforcement Association noted that AFJ refers to cop killers they want released as “elder freedom fighters” and asserted:
It is one thing to stand up for the rights of those shunned or mistreated by society. It is a far different thing to exalt unrepentant killers who were convicted following legal trials in courts of law. Mr. Mangi is smart enough to know the difference, and has made his choice. He has consistently and even proudly advocated against those who serve and sacrifice to protect us all. Mr. Mangi’s conscious work with the Alliance shows an anti-victim and anti-police bias that would certainly cloud his decision making as a judge.
In a similar vein, the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association wrote:
We can respect a lawyer who represents criminal defendants to the best of their ability. But we can’t respect, and can never support, a lawyer who so blatantly promotes the opinion that the police are criminals, and the cop-killers are the victims. [Mangi] has disqualified himself as an impartial decider of facts where police are involved, and we therefore ask that his nomination be defeated in the Senate.
The State Troopers NCO Association of New Jersey called it “an affront to the men and women of the State Troopers NCO Association and New Jersey State Police that cop-killers who were convicted beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law could be held as heroes and icons to some. . . . Advocating for unrepentant cop-killers in the name of justice is an insult to all those who don the uniform everyday to serve and protect.”
The officers murdered in the Brink’s robbery were members of the Rockland County Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which did not hold back in its letter:
For a legal professional such as Mr. Mangi to support and work with a person like Boudin shows his lack of care for life and the rule of law. . . . It is pure disrespect to the men and women of Rockland County Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, past and present, the citizens of Nyack, and Rockland County that terrorist cop killers who were convicted beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law could be held as heroes and icons to a man seeking the great responsib[ility] of upholding the rule of law.
The Association of Former New Jersey State Troopers used the same language with respect to “current and former members of the New Jersey State Police” in general. The Rockland County Patrolmen’s letter closed with an offer to senators to meet at the location where “Mr. Mangi’s heroes executed our heroes who were protecting and serving the community on October 20th, 1981.”
The Sergeants Benevolent Association of the New York City Police Department noted that its members “strenuously object” to the nomination, citing Mangi’s work with organizations that not only “glamorize individuals convicted of brutally murdering police officers,” but also “distort the truth about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.” Of the Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights program on the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 that “sought to blame the U.S. for the attacks,” the SBA asserted, “Confirming Adeel Mangi gives credence to these false, irresponsible, and dangerous conspiracy theories and amounts to an endorsement of them.”
Senators in deep blue states can likely get away with supporting Mangi. But how could senators up for reelection elsewhere, such as Bob Casey, Sherrod Brown, and Jon Tester, vote to confirm him to a lifetime appointment as a federal judge?