WASHINGTON (TIP): Sri Srinivasan, 46, was sworn in an overflowing court room by retired Supreme Court judge Sandra Day O’Connor, in the presence of legal luminaries, friends and families as his mother Saroja Srinivasan held the Gita, the sacred book of Hinduism, before him. Gursharan Kaur literally rushed from the airport with just a short halt at the hotel to watch the investiture of Srinivasan on the bench of the US Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit. O’Connor, for whom Srinivasan once clerked, called him “fair, faultless and fabulous”. Confirmed by the US Senate in May by a 97 to 0 vote, Srinivasan was earlier principal deputy solicitor general of the US to which job he succeeded another Indian American, Neal Kumar Katyal, in August last year.

Srinivasan came to the US with his parents in the 1970s at the age of four. His family settled in Lawrence, Kansas, where his father was a mathematics professor at the University of Kansas, and his mother taught at the Kansas City Art Institute. He received his BA with honors and distinction in 1989 from Stanford University and his JD with distinction in 1995 from Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and served as an editor of the Stanford Law Review. Addressing the gathering, Srinivasan acknowledged the contribution of his parents and family on his achievements. Srinivasan was first nominated by Obama on June 11, 2012. On January 2, his nomination was returned to the President, due to the sine die adjournment of the Senate. On January 3, 2013, Obama re-nominated him for the same office. His appointment is a testimony to his credibility and caliber as a brilliant legal luminary of the US. Srinivasan was previously the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States. He is a highly respected appellate advocate who has spent a distinguished career litigating before the US Supreme Court and the US Courts of Appeals, both on behalf of the United States and in private practice.