V.I. native Wilma Lewis was confirmed Thursday by the U.S. Senate as the next District Court Judge of the U.S. Virgin Islands – the first woman to serve on the federal court bench in the territory.
Lewis’s confirmation came on a voice vote Thursday morning, according to the Congressional Roll Call website.
Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen had presented Lewis to the Senate Judiciary Committee back in May. The delegate said the St. Thomas native would bring an “extensive, varied and broad wealth of experience, from both the public and private sector, to the District Court of the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
Lewis, a native of St. Thomas, was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the federal bench, replacing U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Finch. Finch formally retired from the court’s St. Croix division in 2009 but has continued to serve as a senior judge until the position could be filled.
Lewis was already a member of the Obama administration, serving as Assistant Secretary for Lands and Minerals Management at the Department of Interior. She had been the District of Columbia’s top prosecutor from 1998 to 2001, and served stints in private practice and at Freddie Mac.
Lewis attended All Saints Cathedral High School, graduating as valedictorian in 1974. She graduated with honors from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania with a degree in political science in 1978 and from Harvard Law School in 1981. She was featured in the 2003 Harvard Law Bulletin as among the 50 female graduates who used their legal education to “take them to extraordinary places.”
The Virgin Islands Bar unanimously voted her as the most qualified and recommended her highly for this position.
