The Hon. Rainey R. Brandt is an associate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2012 and 2016 and former President Donald Trump in 2017 and 2019. Brandt was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 1, 2019.
She has held assignments in the Domestic Violence and Civil Divisions and has served as Deputy Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division. Prior to her nomination, Brandt presided as the Deputy Presiding Magistrate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia since 2012.
Before joining the bench, she taught full-time as a professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Criminology at American University. Brandt continues to teach there as an adjunct professor.
Early in her legal career, she was a law clerk to Hon. Michael Rankin and Hon. Stephanie Duncan-Peters beginning in 1996 before becoming special counsel to the Chief Judge in 1998. In addition to her position on the Superior Court, Brandt handled prisoner/correctional issues as ombudsman to the justice community.
She received a B.A., an M.S., and a Ph.D. (1993) from American University. Brandt then completed a J.D. at Catholic University Columbus School of Law in 1995. Her dissertation analyzed the effects of incarceration on the father-child relationship.
Brandt has served as a board member of the D.C. Law Students in Court Program and an executive board member of the Voices for a Second Chance.
She received the Justice Potter Steward Award from the Council for Court Excellence and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Rising for Justice in 2015.
Brandt was born and raised in LaGrange, Georgia. Her husband, Robert W. Brandt, served as an assistant director with the United Marshals Service.