President Joe Biden set to nominate 2 women to become federal judges in Arizona

Ronald J. Hansen, Arizona Republic
Updated ·2 min read
22
President Joe Biden walks toward members of the media as he arrives at the White House in Washington, Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, after returning from Rehoboth Beach, Del.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

President Joe Biden is expected Wednesday to nominate two women for federal district court judgeships in Arizona as part of another nationwide burst of appointments to the judiciary.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Angela Martinez and Krissa Lanham, an assistant U.S. attorney in Arizona, could become the first Biden appointees to the federal bench in Arizona. The appointment is a lifetime position and requires Senate confirmation.

Martinez became a magistrate judge in Tucson last year after two stints covering about 12 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the state. She has clerked for federal judges Jennifer Zipps and John Roll in Arizona.

Roll was among six people slain in 2011 at the mass shooting near Tucson in which then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., received a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head and 12 others also were wounded.

Martinez also was an associate in a pair of law firms, Farhang and Medcoff and Lewis and Roca.

'No peace': The Kari Lake-Meghan McCain feud is escalating quickly. Here's how

She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona in 1995 and her law degree from UA five years later.

Lanham has worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona since 2009 and headed the appellate unit there since 2020. She coordinated human-trafficking cases there as well.

She clerked for Judge Barry Silverman in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and for federal judge Robert Chatigny in Connecticut.

She graduated with a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Yale University in 2002 and received her law degree there in 2007.

In 2022, Biden named Judge Roopali Desai to the 9th Circuit bench. She has an Arizona background, including serving as counsel to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.

Former President Donald Trump named five judges to U.S. District Court in Arizona during his term and 174 to the district court bench nationwide. He named 54 people to the appellate court bench.

So far, Biden has gotten 134 judges named to the district court bench. Martinez and Lanham would be his first in Arizona. Biden has named 40 appeals court judges.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Joe Biden to nominate Angela Martinez, Krissa Lanham as US judges