A U.S. District judge in Portland has announced her plans to retire next year after more than 12 years on the federal bench.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen

Nancy Torresen, the first woman to be named a federal judge in Maine, informed President Biden on Wednesday that she will assume inactive senior status on Oct. 11, 2025.

A clerk for the federal courthouse confirmed the news Wednesday, but Torresen declined to speak with a reporter about her decision.

She was first nominated in 2011 by former President Barack Obama to replace former U.S. District Judge Brock Hornby and was sworn in on May 4, 2012. Three years later, she was named chief judge of U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, succeeding Judge John Woodcock Jr., and served a five-year term.

Torresen has presided over a wide range civil and criminal cases in Portland.

In 2018, she dismissed a case brought by a Falmouth man who sued Deering High School because the school had ruled his 15-year-old son was not eligible to compete for a spot on the varsity baseball team.

In 2019, she ruled in favor of an Aroostook County woman who had sued the county jail and sheriff over whether she should be permitted to take Suboxone while in jail. In her decision to grant a preliminary injunction, Torresen concluded that denying Brenda Smith, of Madawaska, her medication would “cause serious and irreparable harm,” and would violate the Americans With Disabilities Act. Her decision was later upheld on appeal, but jails and prisons have started to loosen regulations around opioid treatment.

In May 2020, she ruled against a Maine church that wanted to hold services that would have violated an order issued by Gov. Janet Mills limiting large public gatherings in the early days of the pandemic.

In 2021, she presided over the case of Maine State Police Capt. John Darcy, who was accused of racially profiling suspects, and ultimately threw out evidence collected by him during a questionable traffic stop.

This year, she oversaw a high-profile trial of a Kennebunk doctor charged with illegally prescribing opioids to patients.

According to the federal court’s website, Torresen was born in New Jersey and raised in Michigan, where she attended the University of Michigan Law School. Before becoming a judge, she worked on civil cases and criminal prosecutions in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine. Before that, she worked in private practice at the law firm of Williams and Connolly in Washington, D.C., from 1988 to 1990.

Torresen is married to Jay McCloskey, a former federal prosecutor who is now a Portland-based defense attorney.