A groundbreaking African-American legal expert who became the first Muslim woman to serve as a US judge was found dead in New York's Hudson River on Wednesday, police said.

Sheila Abdus-Salaam, a 65-year-old associate judge of New York's highest court, was found floating off Manhattan's west side on Wednesday afternoon, a day after she was reported missing, a police spokesman said.

Police pulled Abdus-Salaam's fully clothed body from the water and she was pronounced dead at the scene.