MIAMI AP – Before she went to law school, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke learned the art of diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Skills such as negotiation, compromise and fairness are coming in handy now that she is presiding over the Jose Padilla terrorism trial.
It’s by far the biggest case ever for Cooke, 52, who was appointed by President Bush in 2004 and has the least experience on the bench of any federal judge in Florida’s southern district. But Cooke, also the district’s first African-American woman federal judge, is drawing praise for her work in the legally complex Padilla case.
