President Joe Biden’s first four appointments to Colorado’s federal trial court were “firsts” of one kind or another.

But S. Kato Crews, Biden’s latest appointee to the U.S. District Court, said on Friday that he proudly thinks of himself as the “first third” — the third consecutive magistrate judge elevated to a lifetime appointment and the third Black man to hold the seat.

“There is honor in these thirds,” said Crews during his ceremonial swearing-in, known as an investiture, at the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse in downtown Denver.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Crews in January to the seven-member trial court and he quickly took his seat as a district judge. For the prior five years, Crews served as a magistrate judge, assisting with the workload of the court while also performing many of the same tasks as the presidentially appointed district judges.

Until 2022, no magistrate judge had ever been confirmed to a district judgeship in Colorado, despite it being a common career progression elsewhere. Then, Nina Y. Wang and Gordon P. Gallagher became the first and second magistrate judges, respectively, who Biden appointed to the district judge bench.

“Our magistrate judge colleagues have been among the best colleagues in my career and I will not forget my magistrate judge roots,” said Crews during his investiture. “The magistrate judges are the face of the federal court. They are in the trenches with civil litigants and they are on the front lines of ensuring due process in criminal cases.”

Crews also mentioned briefly serving alongside the only two other Black district judges to sit on Colorado’s federal trial court: the late Wiley Y. Daniel, who joined the court in 1995, and Raymond P. Moore, who succeeded Daniel and recently took a form of semi-retirement known as senior status. Crews now sits in the seat held by both.

“I do not take this opportunity or its symbolism lightly,” he said. “There is honor and legacy in these thirds.”

Crews graduated from the University of Northern Colorado in 1997 and received a law degree from the University of Arizona in 2000. He then spent one year working for the National Labor Relations Board investigating and prosecuting allegations of unfair labor practices by employers.

Beginning in 2001 and for the next 17 years, Crews was in private practice, largely defending employers against civil lawsuits. He also began to represent individual workers and a union. In 2018, the federal district judges in Colorado appointed him to be a magistrate judge. In that position, he founded a program enabling pro bono attorneys to appear in certain one-off hearings on behalf of unrepresented litigants.

Crews gave a shout-out in his investiture speech to Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter, who joined the court around the same time as Crews.

“Thank you, Reid, for the friendship, camaraderie and support you provided from the start. We might be on different seniority tracks now, but I will never forget the two weeks I had on you as a magistrate judge,” Crews said to laughter.

He also addressed a high-profile gaffe during his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year.

Under questioning from Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., Crews could not immediately recall the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brady v. Maryland decision, obligating prosecutors to turn over certain evidence favorable to the defense. Kennedy has occasionally tested the knowledge of other nominees, prompting some to withdraw their nominations.

Internet commenters pounced on Crews, while federal practitioners in Colorado and even a Brady expert came to his defense.

“As many of you know, I went through some things on social media after my confirmation hearing,” Crews acknowledged. “As a matter of perspective, my judicial assistant’s 10-year-old daughter thinks it’s pretty cool that her mom works for a guy who had a viral moment on social media.”

Crews thanked the attorneys in Colorado who supported him and exposed themselves to criticism.

“Practitioners in our federal court and in this legal and nonlegal community stood by me. Some of you reached out with words of support and others voiced support publicly,” he said. “My thick skin has been made thicker.”

Sen. Michael Bennet also spoke at Crews’ investiture, having recommended Crews to the White House. Bennet said it was very meaningful to him and to Sen. John Hickenlooper that Crews was a “proud son of Pueblo.”

“Kato, when we first interviewed, he stood out in so many ways,” added Hickenlooper. “Kato’s supporters were just a step above what I normally, or at least what I felt we would normally, see. They represented all walks of life. They wrote out actual stories and told anecdotes of his — how he reacted in certain situations that was compelling.”

Other speakers included Crews’ former attorney colleagues and friends, as well as his daughter.

“If you had him as a colleague, you can speak to his integrity, his work ethic and his many accomplishments. And if you worked closely with him, you know how much fun he is to be around. If you’ve been mentored by him, you know he is patient and thoughtful,” she said. That array of characteristics “also makes him a wonderful father.”

“I’m not crying, you’re crying!” an emotional Judge Crews said to the audience.

In addition to district judges and magistrate judges, attendees included Chief Judge Jerome A. Holmes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, plus Senior Judge David M. Ebel and Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich; Colorado Supreme Court Justices Monica M. Márquez and William W. Hood III; Court of Appeals Judges Craig R. Welling, Lino S. Lipinsky de Orlov, Neeti V. Pawar, Jaclyn Casey Brown, Christina F. Gomez, David H. Yun and Pax L. Moultrie; U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan; and Federal Public Defender Virginia L. Grady.

Afterward, there was a reception at the 10th Circuit’s courthouse, which Crews paid for himself.