Pakistani American legal scholar Lina Khan, a former Associate Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, has been confirmed by the US Senate as the Chair of the US Federal Trade Commission. At 32 year old, she has become the youngest person yet to head the US govt agency which was formed in 1914.
Khan was nominated to the post by US President Joe Biden and was on Tuesday confirmed by the US Senate with a vote of 69-28. She will remain the Chair of the US Federal Trade Commission(FTC) till September 25, 2024.
The FTC is a specialized US government agency tasked with promoting competition, antitrust issues and the protection of consumers. Lina Khan has been a prolific writer on antitrust law. Her work on antitrust has been published in reputed journals like Columbia Law Review, Harvard Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, and Yale Law Journal. She was earlier an Associate Professor at Columbia Law School where she taught antitrust law, infrastructure industries law and antimonopoly tradition.
“It is a tremendous honour to have been selected by President Biden to lead the Federal Trade Commission”, Khan said in a press release adding that she would work to protect the public from corporate abuse. She also took to microblogging site Twitter to thank the US Senate for her confirmation to the post.
I’m so grateful to the Senate for my confirmation. Congress created the FTC to safeguard fair competition and protect consumers, workers, and honest businesses from unfair & deceptive practices. I look forward to upholding this mission with vigor and serving the American public.
— Lina Khan (@linamkhan) June 15, 2021
Lina Khan also enjoys Congressional experience as she had earlier served as counsel to a US House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. She was born to Pakistani parents in London and shifted to the United States at the age of 11. Her appointment as the US FTC chairman was welcomed by several senators including Maria Cantwell, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar.
