Justice Department Official Sparkle Sooknanan Becomes Federal Judge in Washington, D.C.

Sooknanan becomes the 224th federal judge confirmed by the U.S. Senate during Joe Biden's presidency.

The U.S. Senate today held a recorded vote to confirm one individual as an Article III federal judge. With this confirmation, 224 judges nominated by President Joe Biden have now been confirmed by the Senate. With today’s action, 176 of Biden’s judicial nominees have been approved for service on federal district courts.

In a 50-48 vote, Sparkle L. Sooknanan was confirmed as a Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She is Biden’s sixth confirmation to the 15-person court, with no additional vacancies at this time.

Sooknanan assumes the Washington, D.C.-based seat previously held by Florence Y. Pan, who was elevated to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A double nominee of Biden, Pan served on this court from September 2021 to September 2022 and remains in active service on the appellate court. Sooknanan was nominated to this seat on the federal judiciary by Biden in February 2024.

Sooknanan served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor from 2013 to 2014. She worked at Jones Day as an associate from 2014 to 2020 and as a partner from 2020 to 2021. From 2021 to 2023, she served as Deputy Associate Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice. Since 2023, she has been Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.