President Joe Biden’s nominee Vanita Gupta has been confirmed as the new associate attorney general by the US Senate on Wednesday with a narrow margin of 51-49 votes after Republican Lisa Murkowski broke away from the unified GOP opposition to back the Democrats.

With her confirmation, Gupta will be the first woman of colour to be associate attorney general, joining Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco as the No. 3 Justice Department official.

Vanita Gupta graduated from Yale University and earned her law degree from the New York University School of Law. She later taught civil rights litigation at the school for some years.  

ALSO READ | Joe Biden urges firms to give paid leaves to employees to get vaccinated

She started her career with NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Vanita consulted with European civil society organizations to work towards advancing the rights of the Roma. 

Ahead of the nomination, she was on a break from her duties of being CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

In the Obama administration, Vanita was meant to oversee civil enforcement and criminals to guarantee equal justice and safeguard equal opportunity for all. 

She also served as the Deputy Legal Director and the Director of the Center for Justice at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) earlier.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the procedural vote Wednesday morning and in case of a possible 50-50 tie, she was needed for the deciding vote. However, with Murkowski, a Representative from Alaska, voting in favour, a deciding vote from the VP wasn’t necessary.

ALSO READ | Xi Jinping to give ‘important speech’ at Joe Biden’s Earth Day summit

Explaining her support for Gupta on the Senate floor, Murkowski said she was troubled by some of Gupta’s statements but decided to back her confirmation following a lengthy conversation with the nominee.

“I asked her point blank, ‘Why do you want this? Is this worth it?’ Because this has clearly been very hard on her as a nominee,” Murkowski said. “And she paused and reflected a moment, and just spoke to how she feels called to serve in a very personal way that I thought was impactful.”

“I am going to give the benefit of the doubt to a woman who I believe has demonstrated throughout her professional career to be deeply, deeply committed to matters of justice,” Murkowski said.