Home	Back to list

NEWS RELEASE May 27, 2003 Contact: Debra Landis, (415) 556-9072 Senate Confirms Consuelo M. Callahan to Serve on Court of Appeals SAN FRANCISCO – The United States Senate has confirmed President Bush’s nomination of Consuelo Maria Callahan, an associate justice on the California Court of Appeal, to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Nominated Feb. 12, Justice Callahan, 52, appeared May 7 before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C. Her nomination was favorably reported out of the committee on May 8, and she was confirmed by the full Senate on May 22 by a 99-0 vote. Justice Callahan will fill a vacancy on the Court of Appeals created in June 2002, when Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez took senior status. She will maintain chambers in Sacramento. A native Californian who was born in Palo Alto, Justice Callahan attended public schools in Los Altos and Fremont. She received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1972 and earned her J.D. from University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law in 1975. She is currently enrolled in a graduate LL.M. program at the University of Virginia School of Law. Justice Callahan began her law career in Stockton as a deputy city attorney. She then joined the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office in 1976 as a deputy district attorney, where she specialized in prosecution of child abuse and sexual assault cases and established the office’s first specialized prosecution unit for those crimes. In 1986, she became a commissioner of the Stockton Municipal Court. In 1992, she became the first female and first Hispanic to serve as a judge of the Superior Court of San Joaquin County. In 1996, she was appointed an associate justice on the California Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento. She became the first judge from San Joaquin County to be elevated to that court in over 73 years. Justice Callahan is currently the president of the Anthony M. Kennedy American Inns of Court. She was instrumental in establishing an award winning community outreach program for her court, which took appellate arguments into a high school setting. Among the awards she has received is the Governor’s award for Criminal Justice Programs (Victim-Witness), the Susan B. Anthony award for Women of Achievement, and the Stockton Peacemaker of the Year award. In 1999, she was inducted into the San Joaquin County Mexican-American Hall of Fame. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is authorized 28 judgeships. With the confirmation of Justice Callahan, the court now has 26 active judges. Nominations are pending in the Senate for the two vacant judgeships, along with one future vacancy, scheduled to occur in November. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hears cases originating in nine western states and two Pacific Island jurisdictions. The court sits regularly in Seattle, San Francisco and Pasadena, and in Portland several times a year. Special sittings also are held in various locations around the circuit. # # #