Published on: Friday, June 18, 2021

The U.S. Senate voted 59-39 Wednesday to confirm President Biden's Maryland judicial nominee Lydia Griggsby, making her the first Black woman and first woman of color to serve as a federal district court judge in Maryland (article available here).

For 3 years, she was a trial attorney with the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice, where she litigated complex civil matters before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  From 1998 to 2004, she served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. She served for 2 years as counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. From 2004 to 2008, she served as Privacy Counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee. From 2009 to 2014 she served as Chief Counsel for Privacy and Information Policy on the Judiciary Committee for Senator Patrick Leahy. She was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims in 2014.

The Senate has yet to vote on the appointment of another Maryland judge nominee, Deborah Boardman. She is a magistrate judge who previously spent 11 years as a member of the Office of the Federal Public Defender.