Neomi Jehangir Rao

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American judge (born 1973)

Neomi Jehangir Rao (born 1973) is an American jurist and legal scholar serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit . She was appointed in 2019 by President Donald Trump , having served in the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019 as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs . She was previously a professor of law at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University .

Early life and education

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Rao was born in 1973 in Detroit . Her parents, Zerin and Jehangir Narioshang Rao, were Parsi physicians from India who immigrated to the United States in 1972. She grew up in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan , and attended Detroit Country Day School , graduating in 1991. She has since converted to Judaism .

After high school, Rao studied ethics, politics, economics and philosophy at Yale University , graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts , _cum laude _. From 1995 to 1996, Rao was a reporter for _The Weekly Standard _. She then attended the University of Chicago Law School , where she was a comment editor of the _University of Chicago Law Review _ and executive editor of a symposium issue of the _Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy _. She graduated in 1999 with a Juris Doctor with high honors and Order of the Coif membership.

Career

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After law school, Rao was a law clerk to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1999 to 2000. She was legal counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2000 to 2001, then clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court from 2001 to 2002.

In 2002, Rao entered private practice in London with the British law firm Clifford Chance , where she practiced public international law and arbitration . From 2005 to 2006, during the presidency of George W. Bush , Rao was an associate with the White House Counsel . In 2006, she became a professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law (now Antonin Scalia Law School ), where she received tenure in 2012. In 2015, she founded the Center for the Study of the Administrative State.

She is a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and the governing council of the American Bar Association 's Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice , where she co-chairs the section's regulatory policy committee.

She is a member of the Federalist Society .

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

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On April 7, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Rao to become the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget . Former OIRA Administrator Susan Dudley , who served under President George W. Bush , called Rao "an excellent choice to lead OIRA...In addition to a sharp legal mind, she brings an openness to different perspectives and an ability to manage the competing demands of regulatory policy."

Rao (far left) at a National Space Council meeting in 2018

Legal commentator and law professor Jonathan H. Adler wrote, "Trump's selection of Rao suggests the administration is serious about regulatory reform, not merely reducing high-profile regulatory burdens." Opposition to Rao came from groups such as the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), which said she had "led efforts to roll back fundamental environmental protections" and "misuse[d] the regulatory review process for partisan political purposes." The United States Senate confirmed Rao to the position on July 10, 2017.

Federal judicial service

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