HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero is supporting the renomination of Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood as chief judge for the District Court of Guam.
District Court of Guam Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood administered the oath-taking for 41 new U.S. citizens on the eve of Veterans Day 2020 outside the federal courthouse in Hagåtña.
Photo by Kevin Milan/ The Guam Daily Post
“I believe Frances’s judicial service has been exemplary enough to receive favorable consideration of re-appointment by you for the people of Guam, and I humbly recommend that Frances Tydingco-Gatewood be re-appointed to serve as the chief district judge for the District Court of Guam,” the governor wrote to President Joe Biden on Jan. 28.
The governor touted Tydingco-Gatewood’s experience and heritage.
“A daughter of Guam, Frances is the first woman of CHamoru and Micronesian descent to serve as a federal judge. After serving 25 years on the judicial bench for both Guam and Saipan and 37 total years of public service, Frances’s 10-year term as the chief district judge of the District Court of Guam expired on Oct. 30, 2016, a position that has yet to be re-appointed and confirmed,” she stated.
In 2006, President George H.W. Bush appointed her to serve as chief judge of the federal District Court of Guam.
When her 10-year term was up in 2016, President Obama renominated Tydingco-Gatewood to another 10-year term but Congress did not act on the renomination.
Tydingco-Gatewood continued on as chief judge for four years while a replacement awaited Senate confirmation.
Then-President Donald Trump nominated Superior Court Judge Maria Teresa Bonifacio Cenzon to be a judge for the District Court of Guam.
But President Biden withdrew Cenzon’s nomination on Feb. 4 along with many other Trump nominations that the Senate hadn’t acted on.
