Christine Arguello | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Senior Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Colorado | |
| Assumed office July 15, 2022 | |
| Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Colorado | |
| In office October 21, 2008 – July 15, 2022 | |
| Appointed by | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Walker David Miller |
| Succeeded by | Nina Y. Wang |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Christine Marie Arguello (1955-07-15)July 15, 1955 (age 70) Thatcher, Colorado, U.S. |
| Education | University of Colorado, Boulder (BS) Harvard University (JD) |
Christine Marie Arguello[1] (born July 15, 1955) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as aseniorUnited States district judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Colorado and is a former Colorado state official. Previously, she was a nominee to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She was inducted into theColorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2014.[1]
Born inThatcher, Colorado, and raised inBuena Vista, Colorado, Arguello grew up the daughter of a railroad worker who housed his family for a time in a boxcar.[2] Arguello earned aBachelor of Science degree from theUniversity of Colorado at Boulder in 1977, becoming the first member of her family to graduate college, and then she earned aJuris Doctor fromHarvard Law School in 1980.[2][3] She was the first Latina from Colorado to be admitted to the law school.[4]
Arguello began her law career as an associate in private practice. She worked for Valdes-Fauli, Cobb & Petry inMiami, Florida, from 1980 until 1985, when she joined Holland & Hart as a senior associate. Arguello was promoted to a partner at Holland & Hart in 1988.[5]
In 1991, Arguello joined theUniversity of Kansas School of Law as an associate professor. She was promoted to full professor in 1998.[6]
In 1999, Arguello took a job at theUniversity of Colorado, but changed her mind before ever teaching a class, choosing instead to join theColorado Attorney General's office as a deputy attorney general, working alongside then-Attorney GeneralKen Salazar from 1999 until 2002.[5]
After leaving the Colorado Attorney General's office, Arguello joined Davis, Graham & Stubbs inDenver in 2003, and also served as a visiting professor at theUniversity of Denver'sSturm College of Law.[7] In April 2006, she took a leave of absence from Davis Graham to join theUniversity of Colorado as its managing senior associate university counsel.[8] She held that job until she became a federal judge.[7]
On July 27, 2000, PresidentBill Clinton nominated Arguello to the seat on the Tenth Circuit afterJohn Carbone Porfilio assumed senior status.[9][10]
Arguello previously had been considered by Clinton for a nomination to a district court seat. Clinton had previously nominatedJames Lyons to the seat in September 1999, but withdrew Lyons' nomination in June 2000. As Arguello had been nominated after July 1, 2000, the unofficial start date of theThurmond Rule during a presidential election year, no hearings were scheduled on her nomination, and the nomination was returned to Clinton at the end of his term.[10]
Later, President George W. Bush nominatedTimothy Tymkovich to the Tenth Circuit seat to which Arguello had been originally nominated. Tymkovich won Senate confirmation two years later.[11]
On April 3, 2008, Democratic SenatorKen Salazar included Arguello's name in a list of three names that Salazar was recommending that the president nominate. Arguello's name was included as one of three that the two senators eventually jointly forwarded to the White House.[2] On May 17, 2008, a television station in Denver reported that theWhite House had accepted Arguello as a Colorado district court nominee.[12]
On July 10, 2008, Arguello was officially nominated by PresidentGeorge W. Bush to a vacancy on theUnited States District Court for the District of Colorado created by the retirement of JudgeWalker David Miller.[13]
On September 9, 2008, she received a hearing before theSenate Judiciary Committee. She was voted out of committee two weeks later on September 25. The Senate confirmed Arguello to her district court seat in a voice vote on September 26, 2008. She received her commission on October 21, 2008, and her formal investiture ceremony took place on December 5, 2008.[2] She assumedsenior status on July 15, 2022.[7]
On May 18, 2009, Arguello confirmed to a Denver television station that she had been approached by White House intermediaries one week earlier about being considered to fill a seat on theSupreme Court of the United States. "I said 'yes,'" she told the station. "I wouldn't have gone this far if I didn't think I could serve my country in this way."[14]
On June 30, 2021, inSanderson v. United States Center for SafeSport, Inc., she considered a motion byKeith Sanderson asserting that theUnited States Center for SafeSport and others should be enjoined from suspending him from eligibility to compete in the Tokyo Olympics in sport shooting on August 1–2, 2021, on the basis of asexual misconduct complaint made against him to SafeSport.[15] She denied Sanderson's motion, writing that he and his attorney needed to serve all the defendants first before she would hand down a ruling.[15]
Judge Arguello presided over the case of Gambian national and former 'Junglers' member Michael Sang Correa who stood trial over his participation in and commission of torture inthe Gambia in 2006 following a coup attempt against then-president and dictatorYahya Jammeh. He had been indicted on 7 counts of conspiracy to comit and abetment of torture against 6 victims who at the time had been suspected by the regime to have plotted the coup. On April 15, 2025, a jury found Mr. Correa guilty on all counts.[16] On August 22, 2025, he was sentenced by judge Arguello to 810 months (67.5 years) in prison.[17] This case marked the very first time a non-US citizen has been successfully prosecuted under the Torture Act of 1994 in the US.
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| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Colorado 2008–2022 | Succeeded by |
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