NAPABA Applauds the Nomination of Micah W. J. Smith and Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona

For Immediate Release: 
Date: August 30, 2023

NAPABA Applauds the Nomination of Micah W. J. Smith and Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona to the U.S. District Court

WASHINGTON - Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Micah W. J. Smith to the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii and Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona to the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

“NAPABA congratulates and strongly supports Micah Smith and Chief Judge Manglona on their nominations,” said Sandra Leung, President of NAPABA. “A graduate of Kauai High School, Mr. Smith clerked for Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court. He has over a decade of government service in the U.S. Attorney’s office and serves as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division and Criminal Civil Rights Coordinator for the District of Hawaii. 

“Chief Judge Manglona has served on the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands since 2011. She is the first in her family to graduate from a four-year college. She is the first indigenous woman to pass the local bar exam and the first and only woman district judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.”

Micah W. J. Smith is an Assistant United States Attorney, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, and Criminal Civil Rights Coordinator in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii. He has also been the office’s Chief of Appeals and Legal Strategy since 2022. Previously, Mr. Smith served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York from 2012-18. Earlier in his career, he was an associate and counsel at O’Melveny & Myers. Mr. Smith served as a law clerk for Justice David H. Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania.

Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has served as the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands since 2011. From 2003-11, Chief Judge Manglona served as an Associate Judge of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Superior Court. From 2004-08, she also served as Justice Pro Tempore on the Guam Supreme Court. Chief Judge Manglona was previously the Deputy Attorney General in 2002 and then the Attorney General of the CNMI from 2002-03. As an Assistant Attorney General in the CNMI Office of the Attorney General from 1998-2002, she served as a prosecutor and then a civil litigator. She received her J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1996 and her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990.

NAPABA thanks Senators Hirono and Schatz of Hawaii and Congressman Kilili Sablan for recommending and supporting their nominations.