Marina Marmolejo

Marina Garcia Marmolejo (born 1971) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Early life and education Garcia Marmolejo was born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico and is a naturalized United States citizen. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Incarnate Word in 1992. In 1993, Garcia Marmolejo served as a substitute teacher in the United Independent School District in Laredo, Texas. From 1993 to 1996, she worked as a research assistant to Professor Raul M. Sanchez at St. Mary's University School of Law, where she also worked as a Property tutor and a student attorney at the Criminal Justice Clinic. She then attended St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, where she earned a Master of Arts degree and her Juris Doctor, both in 1996. Her LL.M. thesis, Jack of All Trades, Masters of None: Giving Jurors the Tools They Need to Reach the Right Verdict, was selected for publication in the George Mason Law Review.

Career Before becoming a federal judge, Garcia Marmolejo began her legal career as an Assistant Federal Public Defender. From 1996 to 1998, served as a federal defender in the Western District of Texas, and from 1998 to 1999, she served as a federal defender in the Southern District of Texas. She earned the highest performance evaluation each year.

In 1999, she served as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of Texas.

In 2007, she moved into private practice and helped open the San Antonio office of Thompson & Knight, where she served as Of Counsel. In 2009, Marmolejo was hired to be a partner with the law firm of Reid Collins Tsai LLP in their Austin office. On July 28, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Marmolejo to replace Samuel B. Kent. The Senate confirmed Marmolejo by unanimous consent on October 3, 2011, and she received her judicial commission on October 4, 2011. According to the legal database Westlaw, more than 450 cases have cited her opinion on this issue. In 2022, she became a Jurist in Residence at her alma mater, St. Mary's University School of Law.