Colleen Rae Lawless, née Schuster, (born 1983) is an American lawyer serving as a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the

United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois The United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois (in case citations, C.D. Ill.) serves the residents of forty-six counties, which are divided into four divisions. The counties are: Adams, Brown, Bureau, Cass, Champaign, C ...

. She was associate judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit in

Sangamon County, Illinois Sangamon County is a county located near the center of the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 196,343. Its county seat and largest city is Springfield, the state capital. Sangamon County is inclu ...

from 2019 to 2023.

Education

Lawless earned 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 from

Illinois Wesleyan University Illinois Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Bloomington, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1850, the central portion of the present campus was acquired in 1854 with the first building erected in 1856. History The in ...

in 2005 and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the Northern Illinois University College of Law in 2009.

Career

From 2009 to 2019, Lawless was a lawyer and

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

at Londrigan, Potter & Randle P.C. in

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its population was 114,394 at the 2020 United States census, which makes it the state's List of cities in Illinois, seventh-most populous cit ...

. From 2019 to 2023, she served as an associate judge of the

Illinois Circuit Court The Illinois circuit courts are state courts of the judiciary of Illinois. They are trial courts of original and general jurisdiction. As of 2024, outside of Cook County which has its own circuit court, there are 24 numbered circuits, which may ...

for the 7th district. In 2011, Lawless represented Marvin Manns, an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

water maintenance worker who sued the city of Decatur for discrimination after he was terminated. Manns refused to sign an agreement that gave him a lower pay but allowed him to bypass civil service selection rules.

Federal judicial service

On September 2, 2022, President

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

announced his intent to nominate Lawless to serve as a

of the

. On September 6, 2022, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Lawless to the seat to be vacated by Judge Sue E. Myerscough, who announced her intent to assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor. On November 15, 2022, a hearing on her nomination was held before 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 ...

. On December 8, 2022, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 15–7 vote. On January 3, 2023, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of 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 ...

. She was renominated on January 23, 2023. On February 9, 2023, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 14–7 vote. On March 1, 2023, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 53–43 vote. On March 2, 2023, her nomination was confirmed by a 51–41 vote. She received her judicial commission on March 9, 2023.

Notable rulings

In July 2024, Lawless dismissed a federal lawsuit filed against the

, police department by the father of a deceased two-year-old girl. The man accused Springfield police officers of violating his constitutional rights and Illinois state law during a traffic stop where his daughter's ashes, contained in an urn, were tested for drugs.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawless, Colleen 1983 births Living people 21st-century American women judges 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Illinois lawyers Illinois state court judges Illinois Wesleyan University alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois Northern Illinois University alumni People from Joliet, Illinois United States district court judges appointed by Joe Biden