Raag Singhal, the federal judge who ruled against Donald Trump in the former president’s lawsuit against CNN, was nominated for the lifetime judgeship by Trump.
Ruling against Trump — dismissing the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the former president can’t bring the same claim again — isn’t a surprise to anyone who’s followed his career.
Singhal has gone against Democrats and gone against Republicans — and has a stellar reputation among Democrats and Republicans in Broward’s legal community, where he has worked for decades, including criminal and civil lawyers and those who were on the opposite side while he was in private practice.
The U.S. Senate confirmed Singhal as a U.S. District Court judge in 2019. He’d previously served as an assistant Broward County state attorney and as criminal defense lawyer. In 2011, then-Gov. Rick Scott appointed him as a circuit court judge. In 2014, he won a full six-year term when no candidate came forward to run against him for the seat.
Trump’s case
Trump sued CNN claiming that references in news articles or by the channel’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” were tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler. Trump claimed the references hurt his reputation and political career and sought $475 million in punitive damages.
In his ruling late Friday, Singhal said the references were opinions and not factual statements. Moreover, it was a stretch to believe that viewers would connect Trump’s efforts challenging the 2020 election results to Nazi propaganda or Hitler’s genocidal and authoritarian regime, the judge said.
“The Court finds Nazi references in the political discourse (made by whichever “side”) to be odious and repugnant. But bad rhetoric is not defamation when it does not include false statements of fact. CNN’s use of the phrase ‘the Big Lie’ in connection with Trump’s election challenges does not give rise to a plausible inference that Trump advocates the persecution and genocide of Jews or any other group of people. No reasonable viewer could (or should) plausibly make that reference,” Singhal wrote.
Singhal
Singhal, whose given name is Anuraag but is widely known as Raag, has lived in Florida for more than 30 years. His parents emigrated to the U.S. from India.
He is the first Asian Pacific American and Indian American to serve as a federal judge in the three states — Florida, Georgia and Alabama — that make up the federal 11th Circuit.
He and his physician-wife have three children. Singhal is a graduate of Rice University and Wake Forest University Law School.
Conservative credentials
Singhal came to the federal bench with conservative credentials, as a member of the Federalist Society, an incubator of conservative and limited-government legal thinking that has effectively become a requirement for judicial nominations during Trump’s presidency and in Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Singhal also was a member of the Thomas More Society, which describes itself as “defending life, family & religious liberty,” particularly opposition to abortion.
In a memo to the Senate Judiciary Committee supporting his confirmation, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called him “highly qualified,” adding that, “He is committed to honoring professionalism, honesty, integrity, and ethics in his work and in the community, and I am confident he will exhibit and exercise those qualities on the federal bench.”
Rubio supported him even though Singhal resigned as a Broward Republican Party committeeman in 2010 so he could support then-Gov. Charlie Crist’s independent candidacy for U.S. Senate — a race that Republican Marco Rubio won that November.
As a circuit court judge, Singhal handled some high-profile cases. In 2018, he ruled that then-Broward Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, a Democrat, broke federal and state law by prematurely destroying ballots from the 2016 election.
In circuit court, Singhal was assigned to handle requests for risk protection orders in Broward County. Under the state “red flag” law, enacted after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, law enforcement can ask a court to seize weapons from people who are dangerous to themselves or others.
Bipartisan support
“He’s a very thoughtful, intellectual judge. He treats everybody with respect, whether you’re a lawyer, a juror, a party, a witness,” Jack Seiler, a former Fort Lauderdale mayor and lawyer, said when Singhal was nominated for the federal judgeship.
Seiler said he’d had cases in circuit court in which Singhal ruled for him and against him.
State Rep. Michael Gottlieb, a Democrat who succeeded Singhal as president of the Broward Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in the early 1990s, said at the time of his nomination he was a “lawyer’s lawyer” who represented his clients with “intensity and integrity … no theatrics, just true grit.”
“Integrity again comes to mind when thinking of his career as a judge,” Gottlieb said in 2019.
Carline Jean, Sun Sentinel
Raag Singhal kisses his wife, Lisa Kay, as their daughter, Julia, looks on during his 2012 robing ceremony after he became a Broward circuit judge. Now a federal judge, he ruled against former President Donald Trump in a lawsuit against CNN. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
When he was a lawyer in private practice, Singhal was active for a time in the Broward Republican Party.
Richard DeNapoli, a lawyer and former Broward Republican Party chairman, praised his nomination, describing him on social media as a “Great judge!”
DeSantis, who had considered Singhal to the Florida Supreme Court, praised his nomination as a federal judge, calling him “an unwavering example of what it means to be a judge” and “an outstanding selection.”
He was confirmed 76-17, with seven senators not voting. The “no” votes all came from Democrats, many of whom consistently voted against judicial nominees and the Republican majority pushing them through.
After the vote, Singhal said he was grateful for “the privilege” of becoming a federal judge. “It is something I never dreamed of, yet it’s a dream come true.”
This report contains information from The Associated Press.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com, on Twitter @browardpolitics and on Post.news/@browardpolitics.