Nancy Louise Moritz (born March 3, 1960) is a United States circuit judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Colorado * District of Kansas * Distr ...

and former

Associate Justice Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some sta ...

on the

Kansas Supreme Court The Kansas Supreme Court is the highest judicial authority in the state of Kansas. Composed of seven justices, led by Chief Justice Marla Luckert, the court supervises the legal profession, administers the judicial branch, and serves as the st ...

Biography

Moritz (formerly Caplinger) was born in Beloit,

Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...

. She grew up in

Tipton Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham. Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...

, Kansas, before her family moved to Salina, Kansas, when Moritz was 15 years old. She graduated

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA) ...

of her class from Sacred Heart High School in Salina. She received her

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

degree from

Washburn University Washburn University (WU) is a public university in Topeka, Kansas, United States. It offers undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional programs in law and business. Washburn has 550 faculty members, who teach more than 6,10 ...

in 1982 and her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

from Washburn Law School in 1985. She has two daughters.

Legal career

Moritz began her legal career in 1985 as a research attorney for Justice Harold S. Herd of the

. In 1987, she became a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

to Judge Patrick F. Kelly with the

United States District Court for the District of Kansas The United States District Court for the District of Kansas (in case citations, D. Kan.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Kansas. The Court operates out of the Robert J. Dole United States Courthouse in Kansas C ...

. From 1989 to 1995, she was an associate with the law firm Spencer, Fane, Britt and Browne in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...

. She then became an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal go ...

in Kansas City until 1999, when she became an Appellate Coordinator for the United States Attorney's office. She held this position until her appointment to the

Kansas Court of Appeals The Kansas Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court for the U.S. state of Kansas. History The Kansas Legislature created the first Kansas Court of Appeals in 1895, to help the Kansas Supreme Court with an increasingly heavy casel ...

in 2004.

Kansas Governor The governor of Kansas is the head of state of KansasKS Const. art. I, § 3. and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Kan ...

Mark Parkinson appointed her to the

in November 2010, and she was sworn in on January 7, 2011, replacing former Chief Justice Robert E. Davis, serving until July 29, 2014.

Federal judicial service

In August 2013, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

tapped Moritz for a seat on the

. On April 29, 2014, Senate Majority Leader

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...

filed for

cloture Cloture (, also ), closure or, informally, a guillotine, is a motion or process in parliamentary procedure aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. ' ...

on Moritz's nomination On Thursday May 1, 2014, the Senate voted 60–38 to invoke cloture on her nomination. On Monday, May 5, 2014, the Senate voted 90–3 to confirm her nomination. She received her commission on July 29, 2014.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Moritz, Nancy 1960 births Living people 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges Assistant United States Attorneys Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Justices of the Kansas Supreme Court Kansas Court of Appeals Judges People from Beloit, Kansas People from Mitchell County, Kansas United States court of appeals judges appointed by Barack Obama Washburn University alumni Washburn University School of Law alumni