Judge Amir Ali
District of Columbia U.S. District Court
Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali was born in 1985 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Waterloo. He received his Juris Doctor from Harvard University. He clerked for a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and then for a justice on the Supreme Court of Canada.
Ali practiced business and corporate law with an American firm that has offices around the nation and one in London. He became executive director of a nonprofit law firm and has served as a professor at Harvard Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and the University of District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.
Ali was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in January 2024. He was confirmed by the Senate and received his commission in November 2024.
In the News…
Judge Amie Ali of the D.C. U.S. District Court issued a preliminary injunction requiring President Donald Trump’s administration to restore real-time American Sign Language to White House press briefings conducted by the president or press secretary. The White House decision to terminate ASL was challenged by the National Association of the Deaf under the 1973 Rehabilitation Act.
Judge Ali wrote, “Given the nature of the programming at issue here — regularly scheduled briefings on critical topics implicating markets, medicine, militaries, and myriads of other issues — the court finds that denying deaf Americans access to and the benefit of it presents a clear, present, and imminent harm.”
Addressing the objection to an interpreter accompanying the president at press conferences, the judge stated, “The evidence shows, and the court finds, that the defendants can readily implement remote ASL interpretation without an interpreter present in the same room as the speaker.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Judge Ali today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Amir Ali
District of Columbia U.S. District Court
E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse
333 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001
