Luis Felipe Restrepo (born 1959), known commonly as L. Felipe Restrepo, is a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts for the following districts: * District of Delaware * District of New Jersey * East ...

and former

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 ...

. He is a member of the

United States Sentencing Commission The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent agency of the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for articulating the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the federal courts. The Commission promulgate ...

Biography

Restrepo was born in Medellín, Colombia, and was raised in northern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. He was sworn in as a United States Citizen on September 7, 1993. He received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1981 from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He received his Juris Doctor in 1986 from Tulane Law School. Restrepo began his legal career as a law clerk at the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

National Prison Project. From 1987 to 1990, he served as an Assistant Defender with the

Defender Association of Philadelphia Defender Association of Philadelphia is a non-profit corporation, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that provides defense on a court-appointed basis for criminal and delinquency cases in which the defendants and respondents are indigent adults a ...

. He served as an Assistant Federal Defender in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1990 to 1993. He was a partner at the law firm of Krasner & Restrepo from 1993 to 2006. From 2006 to 2013, he served as a

United States magistrate judge In United States federal courts, magistrate judges are judges appointed to assist U.S. district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges generally oversee first appearances of criminal defendants, set bail, and conduc ...

of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania where he presided over a variety of criminal and civil matters. He has served in a variety of teaching positions; since 1993 he has served as an Adjunct Professor teaching Trial Advocacy at

Temple University Beasley School of Law The Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law is the law school of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and enrolls about 530 students. Student body Admission for fall 2019 entering class was highly compe ...

. From 1997 to 2009 he served as an Adjunct Professor teaching Trial Advocacy at

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

and in the summer of 1992 he served as an Adjunct Professor teaching a course in Criminal Justice at

Peirce College Peirce College is a private college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It focuses on adult learners. History In 1865, Thomas May Peirce, a Philadelphia educator, founded the Union Business College. The curriculum was designed to provide returni ...

Federal judicial service

District court 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 Restrepo 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

Anita B. Brody Anita Jane Brody (née Blumstein; born May 25, 1935), also known as Anita Blumstein Brody, is a Senior status, senior United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsyl ...

, who assumed senior status on June 8, 2009. On January 2, 2013, his nomination was returned to the President, due to the sine die adjournment of the Senate. On January 3, 2013, Obama renominated Restrepo to the same office. The Senate confirmed his nomination on June 17, 2013, by a

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 ...

. He received his commission on June 19, 2013. His service as a district court judge was terminated on January 13, 2016 when he was elevated to the

Court of appeals service

On November 12, 2014, President Obama nominated Restrepo to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the

, to the seat vacated by Anthony Joseph Scirica who assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on July 1, 2013. On December 16, 2014, his nomination was returned to the President due to the sine die adjournment of the Senate. On January 7, 2015, President Obama renominated him to the same position. He received a hearing before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations ...

on June 10, 2015. On July 9, 2015, his nomination was reported out of committee by a

. On January 11, 2016, the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

voted 82–6 to elevate him to the

. He received his commission on January 13, 2016. Judge Restrepo was President Obama's last appellate court judge to be confirmed by the Senate.

United States Sentencing Commission

Intent to nominate under Trump

On March 1, 2018, President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

nominated Restrepo to serve as Commissioner of the

, a seven-member independent body that sets federal sentencing guidelines. Restrepo's nomination was sent to the

. On January 3, 2019, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate. On August 12, 2020, President

announced his intent to renominate Restrepo to serve as a Commissioner of the United States Sentencing Commission.

Nomination under Biden

On May 11, 2022, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Restrepo to serve as a member of the

. On May 12, 2022, his nomination was sent to the Senate, he has been nominated to fill the position left vacant by Judge

Ketanji Brown Jackson Ketanji Onyika Brown Jackson ( ; born September 14, 1970) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Jackson was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Joe Biden on February 25, 202 ...

, whose term expired. On June 8, 2022, a hearing on his nomination was held before the

. On July 21, 2022, his nomination was reported out of committee by a voice vote, with 6 Republican senators voted “no” on record. On August 4, 2022, the

confirmed his nomination by a voice vote.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Restrepo, Luis Felipe 1959 births Living people 21st-century American judges American politicians of Colombian descent Colombian emigrants to the United States Hispanic and Latino American judges Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Lawyers from Philadelphia Members of the United States Sentencing Commission People from Medellín People from Virginia Public defenders Tulane University Law School alumni United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama United States court of appeals judges appointed by Barack Obama United States magistrate judges University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty