Ramona V. Manglona
THE U.S. Senate on Tuesday, April 16, confirmed Ramona V. Manglona’s nomination to serve a second 10-year term as federal judge of the District Court for the NMI.
The vote was 96 in favor and two opposed. Sens. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, and Daniel Sullivan, R-Alaska, voted no. Not voting were Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, and Kyrsten Sinema, Ind.-Arizona.
In his weekly e-newsletter, U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, D-MP, congratulated Judge Manglona.
“The final … vote in the United States Senate seemed overwhelmingly supportive of the Marianas Judge,” he said. “But the procedural vote on Monday to bring the nomination to the floor was much narrower with 51 Democrats in favor and 49 Republicans opposed.”
Kilili added, “Judge Manglona has done credit to our community during her service on the bench; and, in my capacity as the Marianas’ sole representative in Congress, I recommended to President [Joseph] Biden that he nominate her for a second term immediately after the President was inaugurated in 2021. Thank you for your service, Chief Judge Ramona Villagomez Manglona.”
The 57-year-old judge obtained her B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990, and her J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1996.
A former CNMI attorney general, she was an associate judge of the CNMI Superior Court for eight years when President Barack Obama, upon the recommendation of Congressman Sablan, nominated her to serve as federal judge in 2011.
She became the first person from the CNMI to be appointed as federal judge. She is also the first female and first Chamorro judge of the District Court for the NMI.
In August 2023, she was one of the 19 women from the U.S. territories who were recognized as “Women of the Century” by USA Today Network for making significant contributions to their communities.
Unlike most federal district court judges who have lifetime appointments, the District Court judge of the NMI and those of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands serve a 10-year term.
