Public Defender Bench Aspirations Emboldened by Biden Nominees

Armilla Staley-Ngomo aspired to be a federal judge since she’d clerked for the first Black woman judge in the U.S. Central District of California, Consuelo Marshall.

But Staley-Ngomo thought her work as a federal public defender would impede her path to the bench. She represents immigrant communities in Southern California.

This year, however, she applied to be a federal trial court judge, a decision she says was inspired by the way the Biden administration has called “for attorneys like me that have not been historically appointed to the bench.”

President Joe Biden’s nomination of several public defenders is part ...