Natasha C. Merle

Natasha Clarise Merle (born 1983)

Career

Merle began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge Robert L. Carter of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 2008 to 2009. From 2009 to 2011, she was a staff attorney at the Gulf Region Advocacy Center. Merle then became an assistant federal public defender at the Office of the Federal Public Defender. She also served as a law clerk for Judge John Gleeson of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York from 2012 to 2013.

From 2013 to 2015, Merle was a litigation associate and civil rights fellow at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in New York City.

From 2016 to 2021, she served as assistant counsel and then senior counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund ("LDF"). From 2021 to 2023, she was the deputy director of litigation at LDF.

Notable cases

In 2017, Merle was a member of the petitioner team in Buck v. Davis.

In 2017, Merle was lead counsel for NAACP LDF v. Trump.

Federal judicial service

On January 19, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Merle to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. President Biden nominated Merle to a new seat created following the appointment of Roslynn R. Mauskopf as director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. On April 27, 2022, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During Merle's confirmation hearing, Republican senators criticized her over comments she made in 2017 in which she said that proposals for voter ID laws and a border wall were based in white supremacy. On May 26, 2022, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On January 3, 2023, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate; she was renominated later the same day. On February 2, 2023, the committee failed to report her nomination by a 10–10 vote. On February 9, 2023, her nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–10 vote. On June 21, 2023, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 51–50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris voting in the affirmative. Later that day, her nomination was confirmed by a 50–49 vote. Senator Joe Manchin joined all the Senate Republicans in opposing her nomination. She received her judicial commission on August 11, 2023.