The Hon. Michael L. Rankin (Ret.) is a senior judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in November 1985. Rankin was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 16, 1985. He assumed senior status on August 31, 2019.
Rankin was Presiding Judge of the Criminal and Special Operations Division and Deputy Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division.
Prior to his nomination, he served as deputy chief of the Felony Trial Divison with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia since 1984. Rankin first joined the office as an Assistant United States Attorney in 1980. During his tenure, he spent time as a special assistant to the United States Attorney in the District of the Virgin Islands.
Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Rankin was in private practice at Wesley Williams Associates in Washington, D.C. (1978 to 1980). He joined the firm after stints as the Acting Federal Public Defender (1976 to 1978) and Assistant Federal Public Defender (1976) in the District of the Virgin Islands and as a staff attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he worked for four years.
He received a B.A. from Lincoln University in 1967. Rankin then completed a J.D. at Howard University School of Law in 1970.
After graduating from law school, he began his legal career as a staff attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice before entering active duty in the United States Army. Rankin was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, serving at the time in Vietnam. Following his military service, he worked briefly as an attorney-advisor for the Office of the General Counsel, Office of Economic Opportunity, until joining the Public Defender’s Office in the District of Columbia.
Rankin co-chaired the Superior Court Quality Service Council and represented the court as a member of the District of Columbia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. In addition, he sat on the Court’s Rules Committee and Joint Committee on Judicial Administration and was appointed by the District of Columbia’s Mayor as a member of the Police Officer Training and Standards Board.
Rankin has taught Trial Advocacy as an adjunct professor at George Washington University School of Law.
Originally from Holly Springs, Mississippi, he and his wife, Hon. Zimora M. Mitchell-Rankin, a fellow senior judge with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, have four children.