Vanita Gupta, Indian-American US associate general, will step down early next year, the US Department of Justice announced this week. She was the first Indian-American to hold the office of associate attorney general.
Gupta has served as third highest-ranking official at the US Department of Justice following her confirmation by the US Senate in April 2021.
Gupta has backed the pro-choice movement and called for police reform and remains the first woman of colour and civil rights attorney to hold this top role at the Department of Justice (DOJ).
“I am deeply grateful to Vanita for her extraordinary service as associate attorney general. Vanita’s commitment to the pursuit of justice, and her relentless focus on bringing people together to find common ground, has made her an incredibly effective leader in dealing with some of the most complex challenges facing the American people,” US attorney general Merrick B. Garland said in a statement issued by the DOJ. He said Gupta also was a “partner to the career and non-career employees who work for her” and also was partner to the public.
Gupta is expected to exit her role at the start of February 2024.
Garland’s statement reflected on Gupta’s achievement and said she led the DOJ’s reproductive rights taskforce to ensure reproductive freedoms remain protected by the federal law. He said that Gupta played an important role in combating violent crime and gun violence and to support the victims of crime. “Gupta has facilitated the department’s efforts to advance a criminal justice system that keeps people safe and reflects our values. And across the components under her leadership — from the antitrust division to the environment and natural resources division — she has prioritised work that centres its impact on people,” the statement further added.
Gupta has led departments addressing environment and natural resources, justice programmes, violence against women and community oriented policing services. She has also led on issues ranging from building police-community trust to safeguarding reproductive freedom, increasing support for victims of gun violence and other crimes, promoting competition and economic opportunity and expanding community violence intervention programmes.
Gupta also served the Obama administration as assistant attorney general for civil rights and as director of the Centre for Justice at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and studied law for New York University School of Law. She also taught civil rights litigation clinic for several years.
