Nancy Brasel takes oath as U.S. District Court judge

Almost three weeks after her U.S. Senate confirmation, Nancy E. Brasel has taken the oath of office as a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Minnesota.

Chief Judge John Tunheim administered the oath in a private ceremony on Monday. A public investiture ceremony will be at an unspecified later date, according to a court press release.

A former Minnesota assistant U.S. attorney, Brasel had served on the 4th Judicial District state court since 2011. She was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton.

President Donald Trump included Brasel in his “11th wave” of judicial nominees on Feb. 12. That group of nine also included Mitchell Hamline School of Law professor Eric C. Tostrud, who was confirmed Aug. 6 and sworn in Friday, also by Tunheim.

Brasel, 49, fills the vacancy created in 2016 when U.S. District Court Judge Ann Montgomery assumed senior status. Tostrud, 53, replaced Judge Donovan Frank, who assumed senior status that same year.

Prior to her service on the bench, Brasel was a board member for the Domestic Abuse Project in Minneapolis.

She is a former partner at Greene Espel PLLP, where she focused on business and employment litigation. From 1997 to 1999, she was an associate attorney at Leonard, Street and Deinard. She once clerked for 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Donald P. Lay.

Brasel earned her juris doctorate from the University of Minnesota, where she was managing editor of the Minnesota Law Review.

According to the Vetting Room blog, which analyzes judicial nominations, Brasel was considered a consensus choice.

With Minnesota’s U.S. District Court back at full strength, Brasel’s presence means there once again are four female judges serving full-time on Minnesota’s 12-judge federal bench. Four of Minnesota’s nine U.S. District Court magistrate judges also are women.