Monica Marquez had a bet going with her father to see who would cry first as he swore her in to become Colorado's newest Supreme Court justice.
"I think your dad lost the bet," said Chief Justice Michael Bender, who welcomed Marquez to the bench during her swearing-in ceremony at the state Capitol on Friday.
The investiture was attended by Marquez's family, friends and colleagues who represented turning points in her life: a childhood in Grand Junction, a foreign-exchange program in Germany, the campuses of Stanford and Yale, a private law firm in Denver to her last stint as a deputy state attorney general.
"There are singular moments remembered vividly and treasured forever, and I look around today and know this is one of those moments," Marquez said after her partner, Sheila Barthel, and her sister, Christine Marquez-Hudson, helped her into a black robe.
"I look forward, with gratitude, to the adventure that awaits," she said.
Marquez, 41, spoke of three judges who shaped the way she wants to lead her life on the bench, including two she clerked for — 10th U.S. Circuit Court Judge David Ebel and U.S. District Court Judge Michael Ponsor of Massachusetts.
The most influential was her father, who in 1988 became the first Latino appointed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, where he served for 20 years before retiring.
She described him as a humble judge who "greeted the night cleaning crew as warmly as his fellow attorneys."
"How many people have the remarkable good fortune to be sworn into the bar and the bench by their father?" she said.
But the younger Marquez broke even more barriers when she was appointed to the bench by Gov. Bill Ritter in September.
"She is the first Latina to serve on the court . . .
Coffman described Marquez's ascent to the bench as a "meteoric rise" but said although lawyers who stood close to Marquez "felt the breeze in their hair," they were not jealous of her success because she worked hard for it.
Ritter said he was confident about choosing Marquez for the slot vacated by retired Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey.
He searched for a justice with a "deep and serious intellect" and found she had the qualities of fairness he was looking for.
"We can find people who take the bench at every level carrying the baggage for someone else," the governor said. "In my conversations with Monica, I found she has a deep respect for the rule of law . . . and that the rule of law in this state applies to all."
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 orfcardona@denverpost.com
