Judge Cecilia Altonaga
Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
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Altonaga has presided over significant federal cases affecting South Florida, including the 2021 multidistrict litigation against Robinhood over the GameStop trading suspension. Her chambers are located at the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. United States Courthouse in downtown Miami. As chief judge of the Southern District of Florida—covering Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe, and Palm Beach counties—she leads the federal judiciary for the region and has set standards for judicial professionalism and civility.
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Cecilia María Altonaga was born December 26, 1962, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Cuban immigrant parents who fled the island with nothing. Her father was a lawyer in Cuba but could not practice law in the U.S. for approximately ten years. She earned her B.A. from Florida International University in 1983 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1986, becoming the first FIU graduate to attend Yale Law School. After law school, she returned to Miami and began her legal career as an attorney with the Dade County Attorney's Office, serving as a law clerk and assistant county attorney before her judicial appointments. She served as a judge in Miami-Dade County Court and Circuit Court from 1996 to 2003, when President George W. Bush nominated her to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. She was confirmed by the Senate on May 6, 2003, and became chief judge in 2021.