All you need to know about Indian-American Neomi Rao who will replace Brett Kavanaugh in US court

Washington, Nov 14: At the White House's Diwali celebrations, US President Donald Trump announced that an Indian-American, Neomi Rao, would be his nomination to replace Judge Kavanaugh in his vacated seat on the US Circuit Court of Appeals for DC, after his confirmation to the Supreme Court.

Who is Neomi Rao?

The 45-year-old ‘regulatory czar' Neomi Rao is the daughter of Indian parents, Dr Jehangir Rao and Dr Zerin Rao, who emigrated to the US in 1972 and settled in Detroit, according to her statement at a hearing on her nomination as administrator in her previous position.

She has two children, Isabella and Ezra, and is married to Alan Lefkowitz.

Neomi Rao's qualifications?

Neomi Rao is by all accounts a respected legal scholar. At the time of her nomination in the DC Circuit, she had been an administrator at the Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget at the White House since 2017, according to Washington Post.

Prior to her posting there, she was associate law professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School in Virginia. While there, she also founded its Center for the Study of the Administrative State, her statement reads.

She is a graduate of Yale University, and studied law at the University of Chicago Law School, completing her studies in 2000. After that, she had also worked as associate counsel and special assistant to former US president George W Bush.

When Neomi Rao praised Donald Trump:

In a Washington Post op-ed in October 2018, Neomi Rao had written in praise of the Trump administration for its regulatory efforts, which she wrote had "saved billions of dollars".

In her writings, Rao has also been critical of Congressional curbs on presidential power, particularly in the removal or dismissal of agency heads.