Amit Priyavadan Mehta

Amit Priyavadan Mehta (born 1971) is an American lawyer who has served as United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia since 2014. In 2021, Mehta became a judge on the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Mehta has notably presided over cases related to the January 6, 2021 United States Capitol attack. In 2022, he rejected efforts by Donald Trump to dismiss lawsuits accusing the former President of legal responsibility in the attacks. Early life and education Amit Priyavadan Mehta was born in 1971 in Patan, Gujarat, India. At the age of one, Mehta moved with his parents, Priyavadan and Ragini Mehta, to the United States. His mother worked as a laboratory technician, while his father worked as an engineer. Mehta was raised in Reisterstown, Maryland, a suburb of Baltimore. Mehta graduated from Franklin High School in 1989. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1993 from Georgetown University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. From 1993 to 1994, Mehta worked as a paralegal at the law firm Patton Boggs (now Squire Patton Boggs). He then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was an editor of the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law. He graduated in 1997 with a Juris Doctor and Order of the Coif honors.