Famous Female Judges
- Photo: Ben Hider / Getty ImagesJudith Susan Sheindlin (nรฉe Blum; October 21, 1942), known professionally as Judge Judy, is an American prosecution lawyer, former Manhattan family court judge, television personality, and author. Since September 1996, Sheindlin has presided over her own successful 4-time Daytime Emmy Awardโwinning arbitration-based court show series, Judge Judy, produced by CBS Television Distribution.Sheindlin passed the New York state bar examination in 1965 and became a prosecutor in the family court system. In 1982 New York City Mayor Ed Koch appointed her as a judge, first in criminal court, then later as Manhattan's supervising family court judge in 1986. Sheindlin is the longest serving judge or arbitrator in courtroom-themed programming history, a distinction that earned Sheindlin a place in the Guinness World Records.Moreย Judy Sheindlin
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- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainSandra Day O'Connor (March 26, 1930 โ December 1, 2023) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from who served from her 1981 appointment by President Ronald Reagan to 2006. She was the first woman to serve on the Court. Before her tenure on the Court, she was a judge and an elected official in Arizona, serving as the first female Majority Leader of a state senate as the Republican leader in the Arizona Senate. Samuel Alito took her seat in October 2005. A moderate Republican, O'Connor most frequently sided with the Court's conservative bloc; having the swing opinion in many decisions. She often wrote concurring opinions that limited the reach of the majority holding. During her time on the court, some publications ranked her among the most powerful women in the world. On August 12, 2009, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.Moreย Sandra Day O'Connor
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Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Maria Sotomayor (Spanish: [หsonja sotomaหสoษพ]; born June 25, 1954) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, appointed by President Barack Obama in May 2009 and confirmed that August. She has the distinction of being its first Hispanic and Latina Justice.Sotomayor was born in The Bronx, New York City, to Puerto Rican-born parents. Her father died when she was nine, and she was subsequently raised by her mother. Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976 and received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was an editor at the Yale Law Journal. She worked as an assistant district attorney in New York for four-and-a-half years before entering private practice in 1984. She played an active role on the boards of directors for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the State of New York Mortgage Agency, and the New York City Campaign Finance Board. Sotomayor was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H. W. Bush in 1991; confirmation followed in 1992. In 1997, she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Her nomination was slowed by the Republican majority in the United States Senate, but she was eventually confirmed in 1998. On the Second Circuit, Sotomayor heard appeals in more than 3,000 cases and wrote about 380 opinions. Sotomayor has taught at the New York University School of Law and Columbia Law School. In May 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court following the retirement of Justice David Souter. Her nomination was confirmed by the Senate in August 2009 by a vote of 68โ31. While on the court, Sotomayor has supported the informal liberal bloc of justices when they divide along the commonly perceived ideological lines. During her tenure on the Supreme Court, Sotomayor has been identified with concern for the rights of defendants, calls for reform of the criminal justice system, and making impassioned dissents on issues of race, gender and ethnic identity, including Schuette v. BAMN, Utah v. Strieff, and Trump v. Hawaii.Moreย Sonia Sotomayor- #138 of 180 onThe Most Inspiring (Non-Hollywood) Female Role Models
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- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainRuth Bader Ginsburg (March 15, 1933-September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Ginsburg was appointed by President Bill Clinton and took the oath of office on August 10, 1993. She was the second female justice (after Sandra Day O'Connor) of four to be confirmed to the court (along with Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who are still serving). Ginsburg spent a considerable part of her legal career as an advocate for the advancement of gender equality and women's rights, winning multiple victories arguing before the Supreme Court. She advocated as a volunteer lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsels in the 1970s. Ginsburg has received attention in American popular culture for her fiery liberal dissents and refusal to step down; she has been dubbed "The Notorious R.B.G." in reference to the late rapper known as "The Notorious B.I.G.".
- Catherine Jean Crier (born November 6, 1954) is an American journalist and author of A Deadly Game and The Case Against Lawyers. She was the youngest elected state judge in Texas history at age thirty and served as a Texas State District Judge for the 162nd District Court.Crier is currently a managing partner in Cajole Entertainment developing television, film, and documentary projects. She regularly appears as a guest contributor and panelist on various news programs, conducts speaking engagements across the country, and blogs for The Huffington Post. Her fifth book, Patriot Acts: What Americans Must Do to Save the Republic, was published in 2011. Her current events blog was launched to coincide with publication of the book.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainJanice Rogers Brown (born May 11, 1949) is a former United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She was an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court from May 2, 1996, until her appointment to the D.C. Circuit. She retired from the federal bench on August 31, 2017. President George W. Bush nominated her to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2003. However, her nomination was stalled in the U.S. Senate for almost two years because of Democratic opposition. She began serving as a federal appellate court judge on June 8, 2005.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainJeanine Ferris Pirro (born June 2, 1951) is an American television host, author, and a former judge, prosecutor, and politician from New York. Pirro is currently the host of Fox News Channel's Justice with Judge Jeanine. She was a frequent contributor to NBC News, including frequent appearances on The Today Show. A Republican, she was the first female judge elected in Westchester County, New York. She was subsequently elected the first female District Attorney of Westchester County.As District Attorney, Pirro gained visibility in cases of domestic abuse and crimes against the elderly. Pirro briefly sought the Republican nomination for United States Senate against Hillary Clinton in 2006, but dropped out to accept the nomination for New York Attorney General. Pirro lost the general election to Democrat Andrew Cuomo by 19%. Pirro has since become known for her staunchly proโDonald Trump commentary. In 2018, she authored the book Liars, Leakers, and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy.
- Photo: Pedro Vera / FlickrMarilyn Milian (born May 1, 1961) is an American television personality, lecturer, and retired Florida Circuit Court judge who currently presides over the American courtroom television series The People's Court. She is the first Hispanic arbitrator to preside over a court show. By the end of the show's 28th season (2012โ13), Milian had completed twelve-and-a-half seasons presiding over The People's Court, making her the longest-presiding arbitrator on the series.
- Photo: user uploaded imageMiriam Palma Defensor Santiago (15 June 1945 โ 29 September 2016) was a Filipino academic, lawyer, judge, author, and statesman, who served in all three branches of the Philippine government: judicial, executive, and legislative. She also worked at the United Nations while studying abroad. Some of her alma maters are University of the Philippines, University of Michigan, Oxford University, Maryhill School of Theology, University of California, Harvard University, and University of Cambridge. Defensor Santiago was named one of The 100 Most Powerful Women in the World in 1997 by The Australian magazine. She was a long-serving Senator of the Republic of the Philippines. In 1988, Defensor Santiago was named laureate of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service, with a citation for bold and moral leadership in cleaning up a graft-ridden government agency. She ran in the 1992 presidential elections but was controversially defeated.In 2012, Defensor Santiago became the first Filipina and the first Asian from a developing country to be elected a judge of the International Criminal Court. She later resigned the post, citing chronic fatigue syndrome, which turned out to be lung cancer. In 2016, she became part of the International Advisory Council of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), an intergovernmental body that promotes the rule of law.Defensor Santiago served three terms in the Philippine Senate. On 13 October 2015, Defensor Santiago declared her candidacy for President of the Philippines in the 2016 election after her doctors from the United States declared her cancer 'stable' and 'receded', but lost in the election. In December 2018, the prestigious Quezon Service Cross was posthumously conferred upon Santiago, making her the first and only woman and the sixth person since 1946 to be enthroned in the country's highest roster.Defensor Santiago was known as the Dragon Lady, the Platinum Lady, the Incorruptible Lady, the Tiger Lady, and most popularly, the Iron Lady of Asia. She is colloquially known in Philippine pop culture as simply Miriam or MDS.
- Photo: Metaweb / CC-BYNavanethem "Navi" Pillay (Tamil: เฎจเฎตเฎจเฏเฎคเฎฎเฏ เฎชเฎฟเฎณเฏเฎณเฏ; born 23 September 1941) is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin, she was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa, and she has also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her four-year term as High Commissioner for Human Rights began on 1 September 2008 and was extended an additional two years in 2012. She was succeeded in September 2014 by Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad. In April 2015 Pillay became the 16th Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / CC-BYBarbara Milano Keenan (born March 1, 1950) is a United States Circuit Judge of United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and a former justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia.
- Photo: user uploaded imageDame Ann Marian Ebsworth, DBE (19 May 1937 โ 4 April 2002) was an English barrister and judge. In 1992, she became the sixth female High Court judge, and the first to be assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. Ebsworth's father, Arthur Ebsworth, was an officer in the Royal Marines and her early life was spent in various barracks. She was educated at Notre Dame Convent, Worth, West Sussex, and at Portsmouth High School. She read history at Royal Holloway College, University of London, where she was a formidable debater, captaining teams in intercollegiate contests. She was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1962, where she was later a bencher. She practised mainly in Liverpool, concentrating on criminal work. She became head of her chambers, but did not become a QC. She became a Recorder in the Crown Court in 1978, and a circuit judge in 1983. She served on the Mental Health Review Tribunal from 1975 to 1983, and on the Parole Board from 1989 to 1992. She was appointed a High Court judge in 1992, becoming the sixth female High Court judge after Elizabeth Lane, Rose Heilbron, Margaret Booth, Elizabeth Butler-Sloss and Joyanne Bracewell. All previous female High Court judges were appointed to the Family Division. Ebsworth was the first to be assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. On 20 May 1992, the day after her 55th birthday, Ebsworth was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). In later life, she was involved in teaching advocacy at Gray's Inn, and for the South Eastern Circuit, particularly at an annual course at Keble College, Oxford.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainCatherine McGuinness (nรฉe Ellis; born 14 November 1934) is a retired Irish judge who served as a judge of the Supreme Court from 2000 to 2006, Judge of the High Court from 1996 to 2000, Judge of the Circuit Court from 1994 to 1996 and a Senator for the University of Dublin from 1979 to 1981 and between 1983 and 1987. She was appointed by President Michael D. Higgins to the Council of State in January 2012. She had previously been a Member of the Council of State from 1988 to 1990, upon being appointed by President Patrick Hillery.She was President of the Law Reform Commission from 2007 to 2009. In May 2013 she was appointed Chair of the National University of Ireland Galway Governing Authority.
- Photo: user uploaded imageDeborah A. Batts (born April 13, 1947) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In June 1994, Deborah Batts was sworn in as a United States District Judge for Manhattan, becoming the nation's first openly LGBT, African-American federal judge. She took senior status on her 65th birthday, April 13, 2012.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / CC-BY-SAShirley Schlanger Abrahamson (born December 17, 1933) is a former associate justice and former chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. She was appointed to the court in 1976 by Governor Patrick Lucey, becoming the first female justice to serve on Wisconsin's highest court. Abrahamson was re-elected to the Supreme Court in 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009. She became Chief Justice on August 1, 1996 and served in that capacity until April 29, 2015. Abrahamson initiated a federal legal challenge seeking reinstatement as Chief Justice. On May 15, 2015 U.S. District Judge James Peterson denied her request to be reinstated as chief justice. Her appeal of this decision was dismissed on July 31, 2015. and she withdrew her lawsuit on November 10, 2015.
- Photo: user uploaded imageBeverley Marian McLachlin, CStJ (born September 7, 1943) is a Canadian jurist and author who served as the 17th Chief Justice of Canada from 2000 to 2017, the first woman to hold that position and the longest serving Chief Justice in Canadian history. In her role as Chief Justice, she also simultaneously served as a Deputy of the Governor General of Canada. McLachlin retired December 15, 2017, nine months before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. Her successor as Chief Justice of Canada is Richard Wagner, who was nominated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2017. Her successor as a Justice of the Court is Sheilah Martin, who was nominated by the Prime Minister through a new process for judicial appointments to the Supreme Court of Canada that permitted "any Canadian lawyer or judge who fits a specified criteria" to apply.In March 2018, McLachlin was nominated to become a non-permanent judge on the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, the first Canadian jurist nominated to the post. The appointment was gazetted and came into effect July 30, 2018, for a three-year term.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB)Nora Josefina Astorga Gadea de Jenkins (10 December 1948 โ 14 February 1988) was a Nicaraguan guerrilla fighter in the Nicaraguan Revolution, a lawyer, politician, judge and the Nicaraguan ambassador to the United Nations from 1986 to 1988.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainValerie Lynn Baker Fairbank (born June 25, 1949) is a Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainBarbara Joan Pariente (born December 24, 1948) is an attorney and jurist from Florida. She was chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court from July 1, 2004, until June 30, 2006. Pariente is the second woman to hold the position of chief justice and served on the court from 1997 to 2019. From 1993 to 1997 she was a judge on Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB)Constance Baker Motley (September 14, 1921 โ September 28, 2005) was an African-American civil rights activist, lawyer, judge, state senator, and Borough President of Manhattan, New York City. She was the first African-American woman appointed to the federal judiciary, serving as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She was an assistant attorney to Thurgood Marshall arguing the case Brown v. Board of Education.
- Photo: user uploaded imageGlenda A. Hatchett (born May 31, 1951) is the star of the former court show, Judge Hatchett and current day The Verdict with Judge Hatchett, and founding partner at the national law firm, The Hatchett Firm.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainSheila Jackson Lee (born January 12, 1950) is an American politician. She is currently the U.S. Representative for Texas's 18th congressional district, currently serving in her 13th term in the House, having served since 1995. The district includes most of central Houston. She is a member of the Democratic Party.Moreย Sheila Jackson Lee
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- Photo: user uploaded imageBrenda Marjorie Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, , known as Lady Hale (born 31 January 1945) is a British judge and the current President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. In 2004, she joined the House of Lords as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. She is the only woman to have been appointed to this position. She served as a Law Lord until 2009 when she, along with the other Law Lords, transferred to the new Supreme Court. She served as Deputy President of the Supreme Court from 2013 to 2017. On 5 September 2017, Hale was appointed as President of the Supreme Court, and was sworn in on 2 October 2017. She is the third person and first woman to serve the role, which was established in 2009. Hale is one of three women to have been appointed to the Supreme Court (alongside Lady Black and Lady Arden). Since July 30 2018, Hale has been a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong. Alongside Beverley McLachlin, she is the first woman to serve in that court. Hale is Honorary President of the Cambridge University Law Society.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainCarol A. Beier (born September 27, 1958) is a Kansas Supreme Court Justice appointed by Governor Kathleen Sebelius. She took office September 5, 2003 to replace retiring Justice Bob Abbott.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainFlorence Ellinwood Allen (March 23, 1884 โ September 12, 1966) was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She was the first woman to serve on a state supreme court and one of the first two women to serve as a United States federal judge. In 2005, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainVicki Miles-LaGrange (born September 30, 1953) is a former Senior United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. She was the first African-American woman to be sworn in as United States Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma. She was also the first African-American woman elected to the Oklahoma Senate.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainAlice Moore Batchelder (born August 15, 1944) is an American attorney and jurist. She is currently a Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She served as chief judge from 2009 until 2014. She also was considered by President George W. Bush as a potential nominee for a United States Supreme Court seat that ultimately went to Justice Samuel Alito. Her husband William G. Batchelder is a former state Court of Appeals judge and a state legislator, who has served more than 30 years in the Ohio House of Representatives and served as Speaker of the House from 2011 until 2014.
- Photo: user uploaded imageMary Howarth Arden, Lady Arden of Heswall, (born 23 January 1947), is an English judge. She currently serves as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Before that, she was a judge on the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
- Leah Ward Sears (born June 13, 1955) is an American jurist and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Sears was the first African-American female chief justice of a state supreme court in the United States. When she was first appointed as justice in 1992 by Governor Zell Miller, she became the first woman and youngest person to sit on Georgia's Supreme Court.
- Photo: Metaweb (FB) / Public domainSarah Tilghman Hughes (August 2, 1896 โ April 23, 1985) was an American lawyer and federal judge who served on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She is best known as the judge who swore in Lyndon B. Johnson as President of the United States on Air Force One after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963. As of 2019, she is the only woman in United States history to have sworn in a President. The photo depicting Hughes administering the oath of office to Johnson is widely viewed as the most famous photo ever taken aboard Air Force One.
