editor’s note: This is the second of three profiles of finalists for appointment to the Colorado Supreme Court.
Monica Marie Marquez was once due to present her side in a mock trial to a group of potential jurors when she found herself without a key to the inside deadbolt of her own home.
“She was so concerned, she climbed out the dog door of her new house in her suit,” said attorney Mary Stuart, who worked with Marquez at a Denver firm. “She showed up on time. That is how committed she was.”
Marquez, now a 41-year-old deputy attorney general, is one of three candidates for an open seat on the Colorado Supreme Court. Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to make an appointment by Wednesday.
Fourth District Judge David S. Prince and Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Robert M. Russel also are nominees.
Marquez was a valedictorian at Grand Junction High School. She went on to Stanford University and earned her bachelor’s degree in political science.
In 1997, she graduated from Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal.
Although Marquez does not have judicial experience, she has argued significant cases on behalf of the state regarding the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, congressional redistricting and campaign finance and election laws.
Marquez drafted briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the General Assembly’s plan to redraw congressional districts. The attorney general prevailed in that case without oral argument.
In 2006, six neighbors from north Parker challenged Colorado’s campaign-finance law requiring them to register as an issue committee when they purchased yard signs opposing the annexation of their property into the town of Parker.
Marquez, representing the secretary of state, argued that voters need to know who is backing political initiatives, no matter how small their group is. A decision is pending before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“Some people think that she is still too young,” Stuart said, “but in terms of the experience she has with the kinds of issues that come before the Colorado Supreme Court, she has the experience of lawyers twice her age.”
Marquez is familiar with how judges run their chambers because she clerked for a federal judge in Massachusetts and for Judge David M. Ebel on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. She is also the daughter of retired Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Jose D.L. Marquez.
Marquez is active in professional organizations and public service, including serving as a board member on the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association and as past president of the Colorado Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Bar Association.
Liz Titus, current president of the GLBT bar, said Marquez worked to form connections between several bar associations — such as the state’s Hispanic bar and women’s bar to help promote diversity for professionals and students.
If she is selected for the Supreme Court, she would become the first Latina appointed to serve.
In her spare time, Marquez hikes and travels with her partner. Last year, they traveled to South America with their fathers for an 18-day hiking trip in the mountains of northern Peru.
Marquez plays the piano and taught herself to play the trumpet. She played for Coro Guadalupano, the mariachi choir at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. She also performed ’60s pop music with the Denver band the Dead Sinatras.
“I try not to take myself too seriously,” Marquez wrote in her Supreme Court application. “I played indoor soccer until 18 months ago when I tried to block a shot on goal with my face.”
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
