Booker Applauds Confirmation of Jamel Semper to U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised the bipartisan Senate confirmation of Jamel Semper to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

“I’m thrilled that the Senate has confirmed Jamel Semper, an outstanding public servant who has served New Jersey for over 15 years, to the federal bench,” said Senator Booker. “I have gotten to know Mr. Semper during the nomination process and have reviewed his record closely, and I’m confident in his ability to preside over cases with fairness and integrity. I want to thank my colleagues in the Senate for their bipartisan support and President Biden for the nomination.”

Jamel Semper has ably served New Jersey at the state and federal levels as a career criminal prosecutor. He began his career as a judicial law clerk on the Essex County Superior Court, served Essex and Union Counties as a prosecutor, and now serves as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, where he supervises federal prosecutors in all phases of criminal investigation and prosecution and supervises the Office’s Violent Crime Initiative, a joint task force of federal, state, and local law enforcement that aims to reduce gun violence in New Jersey communities.  

Semper is the ninth judge President Joe Biden has nominated and the Senate has confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, following Julien X. Neals, Zahid Quraishi, Christine O’Hearn, Karen Williams, Georgette Castner, Evelyn Padin, Michael Fabiarz, and Robert Kirsch.

In recent months, President Biden has also nominated Judge Edward Kiel to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and Adeel Abdullah Mangi to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Booker has served on the Senate Judiciary Committee since 2018. He has been a leader in the Senate on criminal justice and policing reform since he was first elected in 2013. Booker has introduced numerous criminal justice reform proposals, including: the Fair Chance Act, the MERCY Act, the Dignity for Incarcerated Women Act, the Second Look Act, the Justice in Policing Act, and the EQUAL Act. He was also a key architect of the most sweeping overhaul of the criminal justice system in decades, the First Step Act, which was signed into law in 2018.