Vicki Miles-LaGrange

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Vicki Miles-LaGrange
Vicki Miles-LaGrange, Chief U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma
Born	1953^[1] Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.^[1]

Vicki Miles-LaGrange (born 1953) is the Chief U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma.^[2] She was the first African-American woman to be sworn in as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. She was also the first African-American female elected to the Oklahoma Senate.

Early life and education

A native of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Miles-LaGrange, received a certificate from the University of Ghana in Accra, Ghana, West Africa in 1973, and graduated cum laude from Vassar College in 1974. She then received her J.D. from Howard University School of Law in Washington, DC in 1977. There, she was an editor of The Howard Law Journal.

Career in government

Vicki Miles-LaGrange served as a law clerk to Woodrow Seals of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas from 1977 to 1979. She was a Graduate fellow in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. from 1979 to 1980, and a special assistant to the African Development Group, Washington, D.C. from 1980 to 1981. She was at the same time a Lecturer in the Women's Studies Program at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1981. She was a Trial attorney of Office of Enforcement Operations, U.S. Department of Justice from 1982 to 1983. She returned to Oklahoma to serve as an assistant district attorney for Oklahoma County from 1983 to 1986, where she prosecuted sex crimes. She then entered the private practice of law in Oklahoma City from 1986 to 1993, and was during that period an Oklahoma state Senator from 1987 to 1993, making her the first African-American female elected to the Oklahoma State Senate along with Maxine Horner.^[3] She was a U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma from 1993 to 1994.

Federal judicial service

Miles-LaGrange was nominated by President Bill Clinton on September 22, 1994, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma vacated by Lee Roy West. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 7, 1994, and received her commission on November 28, 1994. She began her service as chief judge in 2008. Judge Miles-LaGrange's preliminary ruling ^[4] enjoining amendment of the Oklahoma Constitution to prohibit the state's courts from either "considering or using" international law or Islamic Sharia law has attracted considerable attention and has prompted one Oklahoma state legislator to urge Congress to impeach her.^[5]

Personal affiliations

She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and formerly served as the regional director for the Midwestern Region. She is also a member of The Links, Incorporated.^[1] In 2003, Miles-LaGrange was inducted in the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame.

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Find Law Profile of Vicki Miles-LaGrange". Find Law. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
↑ Official Website. Retrieved on January 19, 2009.
↑ Vicki Miles-LaGrange -- Women of the Oklahoma Legislature Oral History Project
↑ preliminary ruling<Order, Awad v. Ziriax et al., No. CIV-10-1186 (Nov. 29, 2010, W.D. Okla.), available at http://s3.amazonaws.com/content.newsok.com/documents/n29opinion.pdf
↑ Gavel to Gavel, Vol. 5, Issue 5, http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Research/gaveltogavel/G%20to%20G%205-5.pdf

Vicki Miles-LaGrange at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

External links

Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame

1980–1989

1982	Hannah Diggs Atkins Kate Barnard June Brooks Gloria Stewart Farley Aloysius Larch-Miller Susan Ryan Peters Christine Salmon Edyth Thomas Wallace

1983	Zelia N. Breaux Kate Frank Leona Mitchell Jean Pitts Juanita Stout Alma Wilson

1984	Angie Debo Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick Jewell Russell Mann Zella J. Patterson

1985	Mae Boren Axton June Tompkins Benson Pam Olson Betty Durham Price Bertha Frank Teague

1986	Sara Ruth Cohen Vinita Cravens Rubye Hibler Hall Elizabeth Ann McCurdy Holmes Grace Elizabeth Hudlin Wilma P. Mankiller Edna Mae Phelps Evelyn La Rue Pittman

1990–1999

1993	Marie Cox Anita Faye Hill Moscelyne Larkin Jasinski Jacqulyn C. Longacre Shannon Lucid Clara Luper Opaline Deveraux Wadkins Pat Woodrum

1995	Nancy Goodman Feldman Barbara J. Gardner Ruthe Blalock Jones Mona Salyer Lambird Gloria Grace Langdon Bernice Compton Mitchell Donna Nigh

1996	Betty Boyd Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher Lela Foreman Sandy Ingraham Lorena Males Bernice Shedrick Valree Fletcher Wynn

1997	Isabel Keith Baker Jessie Thatcher Bost Norman Eagleton Kay Goebel Ruth Gilliland Kistler Hardaman Beverly Horse Mazola McKerson Penny Baldwin Williams

2000–2009

2001	Jari Askins Shirley Bellmon Dorothy Moses DeWitty Sandy Garrett Lynn Jones Yvonne Kauger Jill Zink Tarbel Dana Tiger

2003	Esther Houser Vicki Miles-LaGrange Linda Morrissey Lynn Schusterman Donna Shirley

2005	Wanda L. Bass Nancy L. Coats Mary Fallin Amelia Elizabeth "Bessie" Simison McColgin Jeanine Rhea Stephanie Kulp Seymour

2007	Sherri Coale Ginny Creveling Joe Anna Hibler Maxine Horner Kay Martin Terry Neese Claudia Tarrington Carolyn Taylor Della Warrior

2009	Rita Aragon Suzanne Edmondson Edna Hennessee Kim Henry Marabeau Looney M. Susan Savage Carolyn Whitener

2010–2019

2011	Laura Boyd Chloe Brown Joy Culbreath Marcia Mitchell Ardina Moore Cynthia Ross Kathy Taylor Helen Harrod Thompson

2013	Ida Blackburn Elaine Dodd Lou Kerr Terri Watkins Nancy Miller Linda Haneborg

Persondata
Name	Miles-Lagrange, Vicki
Alternative names
Short description	United States federal judge
Date of birth	1953
Place of birth	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Date of death
Place of death

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