The Hon. Zinora M. Mitchell-Rankin (Ret.) is a senior judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She was nominated to the bench by former President George H.W. Bush in September 1989. Mitchell-Rankin was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 19, 1989. She retired on February 29, 2012, and continued to preside in senior status.
Prior to her nomination, she was an Assistant United States Attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia since 1982. During her tenure there, Mitchell-Rankin served in both the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She also held the position of Administrative Assistant United States Attorney (1987 to 1988) and was Executive Assistant for Management.
Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Mitchell-Rankin was a trial attorney assigned to the Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, on appointment with the Department of Justice Honors Program. As such, she practiced affirmative and defensive civil litigation before the United States District Courts, the United States Court of Appeals, the United States Bankruptcy Court, and the United States Claims Court.
Mitchell-Rankin received a B.A. in political science from Spelman College in 1976. She then completed a J.D. at George Washington University Law School in 1979.
Mitchell-Rankin was born in Washington, D.C. She and her husband, Hon. Michael L. Rankin, a fellow senior judge with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, have four children.