Cynthia Marie Rufe (née Favata; born October 30, 1948) is a

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Early life and education

Born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Rufe graduated from

Adelphi University Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

with her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1970 and later from University at Buffalo Law School with a

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 law ...

in 1977.

Legal career

Following law school graduation, Rufe served as a

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...

in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, spending much of her tenure there in the juvenile division. She became a deputy

in 1980. Soon thereafter, she left government service to practice privately. She practiced in her own firm for 11 years, gaining prominence in the local legal community. In 1994, she was elected as a judge of the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, where she served for eight years, until 2002.

Federal judicial service

On the recommendation of Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, Rufe was nominated to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

on January 23, 2002 to a seat vacated by

Norma Levy Shapiro Norma Sondra Levy Shapiro (July 27, 1928 – July 22, 2016) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Education and career Born Norma Sondra Levy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvan ...

. Rufe was confirmed by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

on April 30, 2002 on a Senate vote and received her commission on May 3, 2002. She assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on December 31, 2021.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rufe, Cynthia M. 1948 births Living people 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges Adelphi University alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judges of the Pennsylvania Courts of Common Pleas Lawyers from Philadelphia Public defenders United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush University at Buffalo alumni University at Buffalo Law School alumni