President Obama Nominates Two United States Sentencing Commission

WASHINGTON- Today, President Obama nominated Judge Patti B. Saris as Commissioner and Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission and Dabney Langhorne Friedrich as Commissioner on the United States Sentencing Commission. 

“Throughout their careers these distinguished individuals have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to justice, said President Obama. “I am confident they will continue to serve with excellence and integrity on the United States Sentencing Commission.”

Judge Patti B. Saris: Nominee for Commissioner and Chair, United States Sentencing Commission

Judge Patti B. Saris serves as a Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, a position she has held since 1994.  Prior to her appointment to the federal bench she was an Associate Justice on the Massachusetts Superior Court (1989 to 1993), a Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (1986 to 1989), an attorney in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice (1982 to 1986), counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the United States Judiciary Committee (1979 to 1981), and an associate in at the Boston law firms of Foley, Hoag & Eliot (1977 to 1979) and Berman, Dittmar & Engel, P.C. (1981 to 1982).  Judge Saris served as a law clerk to the late Justice Robert Braucher of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.  She is a graduate of Radcliffe College (B.A., 1973) and the Harvard Law School (J.D., 1976).

Commissioner Dabney Langhorne Friedrich:  Nominee for Commissioner, United States Sentencing Commission

Dabney Langhorne Friedrich has served as a Commissioner on the United States Sentencing Commission since 2006.  Prior to her appointment to the Commission, Friedrich served as associate counsel at the White House (2003 to 2006), counsel to Chairman Orrin G. Hatch of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (2002-2003), an assistant U.S. Attorney, first for the Southern District of California (1995-1997) and then for the Eastern District of Virginia (1998-2002), and an associate in private practice at Latham & Watkins in San Diego (1994-1995). From 1992-1994, she was law clerk to now Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia). Friedrich received her B.A. from Trinity University (1988), her Diploma in Legal Studies from Oxford University (1989), and her J.D. from Yale Law School (1992).