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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Ramona Villagomez Manglona to the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Judge Manglona was born in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands--CNMI. She received a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990 and a J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1996. Following her graduation from law school, she clerked for Judge Virginia Sablan-Onerheim and Judge Alexandro C. Casto, both on the CNMI Superior Court. Judge Manglona then began her legal career as assistant attorney general in the criminal division for the CNMI Office of the Attorney General. She served in the criminal division for 3 years before moving to the civil division in 2001. In 2002, she was appointed to serve as the attorney general for the CNMI. Judge Manglona was appointed to a 6-year term as an associate judge on the Superior Court for the CNMI in 2003 and was elected to serve a second term in 2009.

In 2011, Judge Mangona was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve a 10-year term as the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands. As the sole active Federal district judge in the Northern Mariana Islands, she performs the work of a chief judge, a magistrate judge, and a bankruptcy judge. In her entire judicial career, Judge Manglona has presided over 185 cases that have gone to verdict, 35 of which were bench and jury trials she presided over as a Federal district court judge.

The American Bar Association unanimously rated Judge Manglona as ``well qualified,'' and she was unanimously voted out of the Judiciary Committee by a vote of 21-0.

Judge Manglona is a highly experienced jurist who will continue to serve with distinction in her second term as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

I am proud to support her nomination.

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