Nitza Ileana Quiñones Alejandro (born January 1951) is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (in case citations, E.D. Pa.) is one of the original 13 federal judiciary districts created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. It originally sat in Independence Hall in Phil ...

. Quiñones Alejandro is the first lesbian Latina to be appointed to serve as a federal judge.

Early life and career

Quiñones was born in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

. She grew up in a military family. She received her

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

degree, ''cum laude'', in 1972 from the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

, having attended Central Michigan University as an exchange student for part of her undergraduate education. She received her Juris Doctor in 1975 from the

University of Puerto Rico School of Law The University of Puerto Rico School of Law is a law school in Puerto Rico. It is one of the professional graduate schools of University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus and the only law school in the University of Puerto Rico System. It ...

. She moved from Puerto Rico to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

after graduating law school. She began her career as a staff attorney for Community Legal Services, Inc. in

from 1975 to 1977. She worked as an Attorney Advisor for the

United States Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

from 1977 to 1979. She worked as a staff attorney for the

United States Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers a ...

from 1979 to 1991.

Judicial career

Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas

From 1991 to 2013, she served as a judge on the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, presiding over both civil and criminal matters. Her nomination to that court in 1990 by

Pennsylvania Governor The governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the head of state and head of government of the U.S. state, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as commander-in-chief of the Commonwealth's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforc ...

Robert P. Casey was controversial with local Democratic and Hispanic leaders because she was a political novice whose earlier employment by the federal government had barred her from participating in party politics. Her nomination languished in the

Pennsylvania Senate The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered ...

for over a year and she was only confirmed once that she had won election to the court. She ran for the court in 1991 without the support of the Democratic machine. In the decisive Democratic primary, she placed 10th of 34 candidates seeking 16 vacancies. She then won the general election in November 1991. She later said that running for office gave her the "thick skin" required of a judge. She retained her seat in the elections of 2001 and 2011. She was the first Hispanic woman to serve on that court. Quiñones is an out lesbian. She is a member of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania.

Federal judicial service

On November 27, 2012, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

nominated Quiñones to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to the seat vacated by Judge

Richard Barclay Surrick Richard Barclay Surrick (born 1937) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Education and career Born in Media, Pennsylvania Surrick received a Bachelor of Arts degr ...

, who assumed senior status on February 1, 2011. The nomination was made on the recommendation of Senator

Bob Casey, Jr. Robert Patrick Casey Jr. (born April 13, 1960) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Pennsylvania, a seat he has held since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, Casey previously served as Pe ...

She is the first Latina lesbian to be nominated to a federal judgeship. Her nomination was confirmed by

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

on June 13, 2013. She received her commission on June 19, 2013.

References

External links