PRESIDENT Barack Obama has nominated Fil-Am Maria Elizabeth (Maribeth) Raffinan to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
"Throughout her career Maribeth Raffinan has shown a commitment to justice and public service," said President Obama in a statement released last month. "I am proud to nominate her to serve on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia."
Raffinan becomes the second Fil-Am to be nominated to a top judiciary post after California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently named Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye, an appellate judge, to be the next Chief Justice of California.
The US Senate will need to confirm Raffinan’s appointment but it shouldn’t be a problem since Democrats control the legislative body. If confirmed, Raffinan will serve a 15-year term.
Raffinan has been a supervising attorney in the Trial Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia since 1999.
According to her bio, as a public defender she has represented numerous indigent defendants facing criminal charges. Prior to joining the Public Defender Service, Raffinan worked in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Columbia.She has co-chaired the 2007 Deborah T. Creek Criminal Practice Institute, an annual training program for criminal defense practitioners in the District of Columbia, and she has served as a member of the Superior Court’s Drug Court Committee. She has also served as an adjunct professor at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America.
Raffinan earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy from Boston College and law degree from Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.
According to ABS-CBN, Raffinan is the daughter of Dr. Jun and Dr. Maria Raffinan from Tampa, Florida. (Joseph Pimentel/AJPress)
( Published August 25, 2010 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p.A1 )
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