Carolyn Barbara Kuhl (born July 24, 1952) is a

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

on the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles and a former nominee to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

. She became a Superior Court judge in 1995 and was nominated to a seat on the

on June 22, 2001, by President George W. Bush.

Background

Kuhl was born on July 24, 1952, in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

. In 1974, she received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in Chemistry from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

with honors. Kuhl was in the second class of women ever to graduate from Princeton. She graduated with honors from Duke Law School in 1977 where she was a member of the

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif () is an American honor society for law school graduates. The Order was founded in 1902 at the University of Illinois College of Law. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of trial lawyers, the serjeants-at-la ...

and an editor of the

Duke Law Journal The ''Duke Law Journal'' is a student-run law review and the premier legal periodical of Duke University School of Law. The journal publishes general-interest articles and student notes in eight issues each year. History and Overview The journ ...

. From 1977 to 1978, Kuhl clerked for future U.S. Supreme Court Justice,

Anthony Kennedy Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) is an American attorney and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1988 until his retirement in 2018. He was nominated to the court in 1987 by Pres ...

, when he was an appellate judge on the

. From 1981 to 1986, she served in the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

. She served as Deputy Solicitor General, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, and as Special Assistant to Attorney General

William French Smith William French Smith II (August 26, 1917 – October 29, 1990) was an American lawyer and the 74th United States Attorney General. After attaining his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1942, Smith went on to join the law firm of Gibson, Dun ...

. From 1986 to 1995, Kuhl was a partner in the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

law firm of

Munger, Tolles & Olson Munger, Tolles, & Olson LLP (MTO) is an American law firm founded in 1962 with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. The firm is known for handling litigation and corporate matters across multiple industries, including entert ...

. Her practice focused on civil business litigation in both federal and state courts with a specialty in appellate litigation. In 1995, she became a judge on the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles.

Ninth Circuit nomination under Bush

On June 22, 2001, Kuhl was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated by the Judge James R. Browning who had taken senior status in 2000. Her nomination was not processed during the

107th Congress The 107th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from January ...

. In the 2002 midterm congressional elections, the

Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

regained control of the Senate. During the new

108th Congress The 108th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives from January 3, 2003, to January 3, 2005, durin ...

, Senator

Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022) was an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 1977 to 2019. Hatch's 42-year Senate tenure made him the longest-serving Republican U.S. senat ...

, R-UT, the new Republican chairman of the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally known as the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the United States Departm ...

, began to process previously blocked judicial nominees. California's two Democratic senators,

Dianne Feinstein Dianne Emiel Feinstein (; June 22, 1933 – September 29, 2023) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from California from 1992 until her death in 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 38th ...

and

Barbara Boxer Barbara Sue Boxer (née Levy; born November 11, 1940) is a retired American politician, lobbyist, and former reporter who served in the United States Senate, representing California from 1993 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United St ...

, announced their opposition to Kuhl's nomination. Contrary to Feinstein's and Boxer's wishes, and the tradition of having the approval of the state's own Senators, Hatch gave Kuhl a committee hearing, and passed her out of committee. Kuhl's nomination was filibustered on November 14, 2003, when the Senate failed to end debate with a 53–43 cloture vote, which fell 7 votes shy of the 60 needed to overcome the filibuster. In December 2004, Kuhl withdrew her nomination. In 2006, new Bush nominee

Sandra Segal Ikuta Sandra Segal Ikuta (born June 24, 1954) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Biography Ikuta was born and raised in Los Angeles. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree at the Universit ...

was confirmed to the seat to which Kuhl had originally been nominated.

Current life

On May 26, 2006, Chief Justice Ronald M. George of the

California Supreme Court The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sac ...

appointed Kuhl to the

Judicial Council of California The Judicial Council of California is the rule-making arm of the California court system. In accordance with the California Constitution and under the leadership of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California, the council is responsible ...

, the constitutional policy-making body of the California courts. Kuhl has also served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions as well as the Collaborative Court-County Working Group on Enhanced Collections. Additionally, she was a member of the Governing Committee for the Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER). In October 2012, Kuhl was elected to the post of assistant presiding judge of the court for 2013 and 2014, defeating Judge Dan T. Oki. By court tradition, she served her two-year term as assistant presiding judge and then ran unopposed for the post of presiding judge for 2015 and 2016.

Law reform work

Kuhl 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 October 1988 and was elected to the ALI Council in May 2012. She served as an Adviser on the Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation project, and continues to serve as an Adviser on Principles of Government Ethics and the Restatement Third, the Law of Consumer Contracts.

Personal

Kuhl lives with her two daughters and her husband, William "Bill" Highberger, who is also a judge on the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

References