Diane Joyce Humetewa ( ; born December 5, 1964)Ancestry.com. U.S. Public Records Index, Volume 1 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Original data: Voter Registration Lists, Public Record Filings, Historical Residential Records, and Other Household Database Listings is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Arizona The United States District Court for the District of Arizona (in case citations, D. Ariz.) is the U.S. district court that covers the state of Arizona. It is under the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The District was esta ...

. Humetewa is the first Native American woman and the first enrolled tribal member to serve as a U.S. federal judge. She previously served as the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for the

District of Arizona District of Arizona was a subordinate district of the Department of New Mexico territory created on August 30, 1862 and transferred to the Department of the Pacific in March 1865. District of Arizona (Dept. of New Mexico) commanders Headquarter ...

from 2007 to 2009. Humetewa is also a Professor of Practice at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law The Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (ASU Law) is the law school at Arizona State University in Phoenix, Arizona. The school is in the Beus Center for Law and Society on ASU's downtown Phoenix campus. Created in 1965 as the Arizona State Unive ...

. Humetewa has served as counsel to the

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a select or special committee (United States Congress), committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the Native Americans in the United States, American Indian, Nati ...

and to the Deputy Attorney General for the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

, as a member of the United States Sentencing Guideline Commission, Native American Advisory Committee, and as an Appellate Court Judge for the

Hopi Tribe The Hopi are Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi ...

, of which she is an enrolled member.

Early life, education, and legal career

Humetewa was born in 1964 in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. She is Native American and is an enrolled member of the

Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...

tribe. She earned an

associate degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...

from

Phoenix College Phoenix College (PC) is a Public university, public community college in Encanto, Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1920, it is one of the oldest community colleges in the country. History The college was originally a part of the Phoenix Union Hi ...

in 1985, then graduated from

in 1987 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

. From 1987 to 1990, Humetewa worked as a victim advocate for the

U.S. Attorney's Office United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for the Arizona federal judicial district. She then attended Arizona State's

, graduating in 1993 with a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

. From 1993 to 1996, Humetewa was a deputy counsel for the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

Committee on Indian Affairs The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 1 ...

. Beginning in 1996, she served as the Tribal Liaison in the office of the United States Attorney for Arizona. From 2001 to 2007, she served there as Senior Litigation Counsel. In January 2007 Humetewa was recommended as a United States attorney by a United States Attorney. Humetewa was the permanent successor to Paul K. Charlton, whose dismissal on December 7, 2006, was a prominent aspect of the

dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy may refer to * 2006 dismissal of U.S. attorneys * 2017 dismissal of U.S. attorneys {{disambig ...

in the Bush administration in early 2007. Daniel G. Knauss served as interim United States Attorney for one year after Charlton's dismissal. During that period, Knauss and Humetewa continued to pursue the criminal investigation of Congressman

Rick Renzi Richard George Renzi (born June 11, 1958) is an American politician who was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing from 2003 until 2009. In 2013, Renzi was convicted on federal criminal charges filed in 2 ...

( R- AZ), begun by Charlton in September 2006. Renzi was indicted by the United States Attorney's office on February 22, 2008. A graduate of the Indian Legal Program at the ASU college of law, Humetewa is considered a national expert on Native American legal issues; she has instructed law enforcement and prosecutors on this topic. From 2002 to 2007, she served as a judge ''pro tem'' on the Hopi Tribal Appellate Court, and as an ''ad hoc'' member of the Native American Subcommittee of the

United States Sentencing Commission The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent agency of the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for articulating the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the federal courts. The Commission promulgat ...

. Humetewa resigned effective August 2, 2009, when President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

nominated Dennis K. Burke as the next United States attorney for the District of Arizona. She was appointed in 2011 as ASU's Special Advisor to the university president for American Indian Affairs and Special Counsel in the Office of General Counsel at ASU.

Federal judicial service

On September 19, 2013, President

nominated Humetewa to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, to the seat vacated by Judge Mary H. Murguia, who was elevated to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

on January 4, 2011. Humetewa was one of four Arizona judicial nominees announced by Obama that day who were chosen in consultation with Republican senators

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

and

Jeff Flake Jeffry Lane Flake (born December 31, 1962) is an American politician and diplomat who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 2013 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the United States House of Repr ...

. On February 27, 2014, her nomination was reported out of the Senate Judiciary committee. On May 12, 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 Senate, United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2 ...

filed for

cloture Cloture (, ), 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. is ...

on the nomination. On May 14, 2014, the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

invoked

on her nomination by a 64–34 vote. Later that day, her nomination was confirmed by a 96–0 vote, with three Democrats and 1 Republican not voting. She received her judicial commission on May 16, 2014.

2016 United States Supreme Court vacancy

Following the death of Justice

Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual an ...

in February 2016, Humetewa was mentioned as a possible consensus nominee for a vacancy on the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

, considered able to make it through the Republican-controlled

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 ...

Personal life

Humetewa is an enrolled member of the Hopi Nation. As of October 2021, she is the fourth Native-American federal judge actively serving on the bench.

References

External links