Carolyn Dineen King (born January 30, 1938) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...

. Her chambers are in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Education and career

Born in

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, King received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree, summa cum laude, from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

in 1959. She received a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

in 1962. After the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

's office in Houston denied her a position as an Assistant United States Attorney—which she believes was because of her gender—she joined

Fulbright & Jaworski Fulbright & Jaworski was founded in Houston, Texas, in 1919 by Rufus Fulbright. Fulbright & Jaworski represented clients in the energy, financial, and healthcare industries. As trustees of the M.D. Anderson Foundation, Fulbright & Jaworski partn ...

as a corporate and securities lawyer. She was in private practice of law in

from 1962 to 1979.

Federal judicial service

King was nominated by President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924December 29, 2024) was an American politician and humanitarian who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party ...

on April 30, 1979, to the

, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629. She was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

on July 12, 1979, and received her commission on July 13, 1979. She served as the first female chief judge from 1999 to 2006. She assumed senior status on December 31, 2013. She was nominated and served until January 1, 1988, under the name Carolyn Dineen Randall. In 2002, at the request of Chief Justice

William Rehnquist William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American attorney who served as the 16th chief justice of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2005, having previously been an associate justice from 1972 to 1986. ...

, she became the first woman to chair the executive committee of the

Judicial Conference of the United States The Judicial Conference of the United States, formerly known as the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges, was created by the United States Congress in 1922 with the principal objective of framing policy guidelines for administration of judicial co ...

Honors and awards

In 2007, King received the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award from the

American Judicature Society The American Judicature Society (AJS) is an independent, non-partisan membership organization working nationally to protect the integrity of the American justice system. AJS's membership — including judges, lawyers, and members of the public — ...

. King is also a 1997 recipient of the Smith College Medal and the American Bar Association's Margaret Brent Award. In 2014, she was honored by the American College of Bankruptcy with its Distinguished Service award.

Notable activities

King was elected to the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars limited to 3,000 elected members and established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and i ...

in 1985 and was elected to the ALI Council in 1991. She served as ALI's Treasurer from May 2010 to May 2013.

Personal life

King served under the name Carolyn Dineen Randall from 1979 to 1988. She married senior Fifth Circuit Judge Thomas Morrow Reavley in August 2004. King is widely considered to be a political and judicial

moderate Moderate is an ideological category which entails centrist views on a liberal-conservative spectrum. It may also designate a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion. Political position Canad ...

Notable case

On December 18, 2019, King dissented when the Fifth Circuit declared the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate unconstitutional.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Carolyn Dineen 1938 births Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Living people Lawyers from Syracuse, New York Smith College alumni United States court of appeals judges appointed by Jimmy Carter Yale Law School alumni 20th-century American women judges