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News and Announcements

Mary Murphy Schroeder: She Broke Barriers From the Start

August 21, 2019
Judge Mary Schroeder is sworn in as a U.S. judge.

In 1979, Mary Murphy Schroeder joined a historic class of women judges who transformed the federal Judiciary, but her law career nearly ended before it began. The night before her first final law exam at the University of Chicago, Schroeder collapsed and was hospitalized with a severe kidney infection.

40 Years Later, Pioneering Women Judges Savor Place in History

August 14, 2019
Image: In 1980, President Jimmy Carter met with members of the new National Association of Women Judges, many of whom he had appointed to the federal bench.

In 1979, 23 women were appointed to the federal bench—more than doubling the number of women appointed to life-tenured judgeships in the previous 190 year history of the United States. The doors they opened never swung shut again. Forty years later, women make up one-third of the courts’ full-time, active Article III judges.

ABA Honors Judge M. Margaret McKeown With Marshall Award

August 8, 2019

Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is to  receive the American Bar Association’s prestigious John Marshall Award Friday, Aug. 9, during the ABA’s annual meeting in San Francisco. 

Judges Explain Rule of Law, Why It Matters

August 8, 2019

Nine federal judges, in a new Judiciary “Court Shorts” video, explain how fair and consistent adherence to the law protects our rights and well-being in everyday situations like buying a breakfast sandwich, reading mail, and investing in the stock market.