Manglona nominated anew to judgeship

President Joe Biden has nominated Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona to serve once more as chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the NMI for another 10 years.

The White House announced Biden’s new nominees in a news release yesterday, with Manglona being one of four judicial nominees to federal district courts, describing them as “extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution.”

Manglona is the current chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the NMI, but her first 10-year term expired in 2021. With no successor being named in her stead, Manglona continued in her role and now Biden is nominating her for the position once more for another 10-year term.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) congratulated Manglona on her new nomination.

“Having a person from the Northern Mariana Islands serving as the chief judge for our federal court is a point of pride and inspiration for all of us,” Sablan said in a statement yesterday. “We are fortunate to have someone of Judge Manglona’s integrity and intellect working for the people of the Marianas in this position. …The President clearly believes Judge Manglona has performed to the highest standards. And I want to thank him for his decision to nominate her for another 10-year term.”

Sablan first recommended Manglona, at the time an associate judge in the CNMI Superior Court, to then-President Barack Obama in January 2011 to fill the federal court seat in the CNMI. Obama made the nomination and Manglona was confirmed by the Senate in July 2011.

When Biden was sworn into office in 2021, Sablan recommended a second term for Manglona.

Unlike most federal district court judges, who have lifetime appointments, the Marianas District Court judge, as well as those in Guam and the Virgin Islands, receive 10-year terms.

This will be Biden’s 37th round of nominees for federal judicial positions, bringing the number of announced federal judicial nominees to 184.

The President is also announcing his intent to nominate one individual to serve as U.S. Marshal, who will be responsible for “upholding the rule of law and was chosen for his devotion to enforcing the law, his professionalism, his experience and credentials, and his dedication to pursuing equal justice for all.”

The President has now announced 23 nominees to serve as U.S. Marshals.

Besides Manglona, the other judicial nominees are Colleen Holland; John A. Kazen, who has served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Texas since 2018; and Micah W. J. Smith. Both Holland and Smith will be new to the judgeship.

Manglona has served as the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the NMI since 2011. From 2003 to 2011, Manglona served as an associate judge of the CNMI Superior Court. From 2004 to 2008, she also served as justice pro tem on the Guam Supreme Court. Manglona was previously the deputy attorney general in 2002 and then the attorney general of the CNMI from 2002 to 2003. As an assistant attorney general in the CNMI Office of the Attorney General from 1998 to 2002, she served as a prosecutor and then a civil litigator. Manglona served as a law clerk to the CNMI Superior Court from 1997 to 1998. She received her J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1996 and her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990.

Holland is being nominated for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. She has served as special counsel to Judge Elizabeth A. Wolford, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, since 2021, and as a career law clerk to Wolford since 2018. Holland previously served as a law clerk for Wolford from 2014 to 2016 and for Judge Michael A. Telesca on the same court from 2017 to 2018. Previously, Holland was an associate in private practice at Boylan Code L.L.P. from 2016 to 2017; LeClairRyan, P.C. from 2012 to 2014; and Nixon Peabody L.L.P. from 2010 to 2012. Holland received her J.D., summa cum laude, from Cornell Law School in 2010, and her joint B.A. and B.S. from the University of Rochester in 2006.

Kazen, who has served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Texas since 2018, is the nominee for the same district court.

Previously, Kazen was a partner at the law firm he established, Kazen, Meurer, & Pérez, L.L.P., from 1997 to 2018. Before that, he was a civil litigator at Kemp, Smith, Duncan, & Hammond, P.C. from 1991 to 1997. Kazen served as a law clerk for Judge Robert Parker on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas from 1990 to 1991. He received his J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center in 1990 and his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1987.

Smith is being nominated for the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. He has served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii since 2018. He is currently deputy chief of the Criminal Division and Criminal Civil Rights coordinator in that office. He has also been the office’s Chief of Appeals and Legal Strategy since 2022. Previously, Smith served as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York from 2012 to 2018. From 2008 to 2012, he was an associate and counsel at O’Melveny & Myers L.L.P. in Washington, D.C. Smith served as a law clerk for Justice David H. Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court from 2007 to 2008 and Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 2006 to 2007. Smith received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2006 and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania in 2003.

David O. Barnett Jr. is the nominee for U.S. Marshal for the District of New Mexico. Barnett has served as a counterintelligence supervisory special agent in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation since 2018. Previously, Barnett was a special agent in the Washington, D.C. Field Office of the FBI. Prior to becoming an FBI special agent in 2006, he was an FBI intelligence analyst and support staff in the national capital region from 1990 to 2006. Barnett received his B.A. from the University of Phoenix in 2002. (Saipan Tribune)

Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona