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Pamela Pepper (born 1964) is an American lawyer serving as the chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin and former chief United States bankruptcy judge of the same court.
A 1982 graduate of Leland High School, Pepper was among the first racially integrated group of students to matriculate through the city’s public schools from K–12. She is one of the graduates featured in The Harvest: Integrating Mississippi's Schools, a documentary film produced by Sam Pollard and fellow classmate Douglas A. Blackmon which first aired on American Experience on September 11, 2023.[1][2]
Pepper received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1986 from Northwestern University. She received a Juris Doctor in 1989 from Cornell Law School.[3][4]
She began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge Frank Minis Johnson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from 1989 to 1990. She served as an assistant United States attorney in the Northern District of Illinois from 1990 to 1994 and in the Eastern District of Wisconsin from 1994 to 1997. From 1997 to 2005, she worked in private practice as a criminal defense attorney, where she handled both trials and appeals in state and federal courts. From 2005 to 2009, Pepper concurrently served as a bankruptcy judge in the Eastern District of Wisconsin and Southern District of Illinois. From 2009 to 2014 she served solely in the Eastern District of Wisconsin and from 2010 to 2014 she served as chief United States bankruptcy judge.[4][3]
In 2014, Pepper was one of three finalists recommended to President Barack Obama by the bipartisan Wisconsin Federal Nominating Commission to fill a vacancy on the federal District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The other finalists were attorney Beth Kushner and state-court judge William Pocan.[5]
2014 年 5 月 1 日、オバマ大統領は、2012 年 10 月 31 日に上級判事の地位に就いたチャールズ N. クレバート ジュニア判事によって空席となった判事の席にペッパーを指名した。 [ 6 ] 2014 年 6 月 24 日、上院司法委員会で指名に関する公聴会が開かれた。[ 7 ] 2014 年 7 月 17 日、委員会で口頭投票により指名が報告された。[ 8 ] 2014 年 11 月 18 日、上院多数党院内総務のハリー リードが指名に関する討論終結動議を提出した。2014 年 11 月 19 日、米国上院は58 対 39 の投票で指名に関する討論終結動議を発動した。 [ 9 ] 2014 年 11 月 20 日、95 対 0 の投票で指名が承認された。[ 10 ]彼女は2014年12月8日に任命を受けた。[ 4 ]彼女は2019年11月1日に首席判事になった。[ 11 ]