India-born US Judge Amit Mehta assigned Justice Department’s lawsuit against Google

India-born US District Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee, has been assigned Justice Department’s crucial lawsuit against internet search giant Google.

Mehta was appointed to United States District Court for District of Columbia on December 22, 2014.

Born in Patan, Gujarat, Mehta received his BA in Political Science and Ecomics from Georgetown University in 1993 and his JD from University of Virginia School of Law in 1997. After law school, Mehta worked in a law firm in San Francisco before clerking for Susan Graber of United States Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Mehta worked at a Washington, DC-based law firm. In 2002, Mehta joined District of Columbia Public Defender Service as a staff attorney.

Mehta served on Board of Directors of Mid-Atlantic Incence Project and is former co-chair of District of Columbia Bar’s Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section Steering Committee. He is also a former Director of Facilitating Leership in Youth, a n-profit organization dedicated to after-school activities and mentoring for at-risk youth, according to his profile on website of US District Court, District of Columbia. On Tuesday, Department of Justice - along with 11 state Attorneys General - filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in US District Court for District of Columbia to stop Google from unlawfully maintaining mopolies through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in search and search vertising markets and to remedy competitive harms.

participating state Attorneys General offices represent Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas.

“As one of wealthiest companies on planet with a market value of $1 trillion, Google is mopoly gatekeeper to internet for billions of users and countless vertisers worldwide. For years, Google has accounted for almost 90 percent of all search queries in United States and has used anti-competitive tactics to maintain and extend its mopolies in search and search vertising,” Justice Department said.

A report in Washington Post said, “absent a settlement, outcome could rest in hands of Amit Mehta, a federal judge in a Washington, D.C., district court. Appointed to bench by former President Barack Obama, he was randomly selected Wednesday to hear Google case.”