William J. Martínez, a judge on Colorado's U.S. District Court, announced that he will step down as an active judge effective Feb. 10, 2023.
Martínez, who is 68 this year, was an appointee of President Barack Obama, and has served since December 2010. He has opted to take a form of retirement known as senior status, which will enable him to continue handling cases while allowing President Joe Biden to nominate a new member to the seven-judge trial court.
This will be the fifth opportunity for Biden to make a judicial appointment in Colorado. Two of his nominees, U.S. District Court Judge Regina M. Rodriguez and Judge Veronica Rossman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, received Senate confirmation in 2021. Another seat on the district court remains vacant, and a final seat will come open this year when Judge Christine M. Arguello takes senior status.
The White House has already nominated candidates for the latter two vacancies.
Martínez was born in Mexico City and graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1980. After law school, he was a legal aid attorney representing indigent and working-class clients in landlord-tenant disputes, domestic violence cases and employment discrimination matters. After moving to Colorado, he was an attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and then became a partner in an employment law firm.
As a private practice attorney, he testified before Colorado's General Assembly in favor of a workers'...
The Presidency has refuted a claim by the Oyo State Governor and presidential candidate of the Allied People’s Movement in the 2027 general election, Seyi Makinde, in which the latter alleged that...