Draft:Rahkel Bouchet

Rahkel Bouchet is an American lawyer who has served as a magistrate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia since 2016. She is a nominee to serve as an associate judge of the same court.

Early life and education
Bouchet was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She graduated from Immaculate Heart High School in 1990. She earned a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Howard University in 1993 and a Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law in 1997. While in law school, she served as a congressional intern and assistant press secretary for Congressman Walter R. Tucker III, in California's 37th congressional district.

Career
From 1998 to 2006 and from 2008 to 2015, Bouchet was a sole practitioner. In 2007, she was a structured-settlements counsel at Seneca One LLC. Also, from 2013 to 2015, she was the supervising attorney of the Child Welfare/Family Justice Clinic at Howard University School of Law. Bouchet was appointed as a magistrate judge on January 4, 2016, by Chief Judge Lee F. Satterfield. In 2017, she was the presiding judge for the D.C. Family Treatment Court, within the D.C. Superior Court.

Expired nomination to D.C. superior court under Trump
In 2018, she was among three candidates recommended to the president to fill the vacancy left by Judge Frederick H. Weisberg.

On September 6, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Bouchet to serve as an associate judge of the D.C. Superior Court. On January 9, 2019, her nomination was sent to the Senate, she was nominated to the seat vacated by Judge John Ramsey Johnson. The nomination was returned to the president on January 3, 2021, and she was renominated the same day. On February 4, 2021, the nomination was withdrawn by President Biden.

Renomination to D.C. superior court under Biden
On March 20, 2024, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Bouchet to serve as an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. On March 21, 2024, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Bouchet to the seat vacated by Judge Robert E. Morin, whose term expxired on September 30, 2020. On June 4, 2024, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Her nomination is pending before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.