Nancy Abudu Confirmed as First Black Woman on Eleventh Circuit

Civil rights lawyer Nancy Abudu has been confirmed to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, where she will be the first Black woman to sit on the Atlanta-based court (Senate press release available here).

Abudu, 48, has litigated voting rights cases across the Deep South and at the national level for the Southern Poverty Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union. She’s challenged felon disenfranchisement, voter ID and proof of citizenship laws, and pushed for greater enforcement of federal voting-related laws in federal and state courts.

Abudu, the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants, is the fourth Black woman nominated by President Biden to serve on a federal appeals court that has never had one before.