Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson (born July 21, 1953) is a
Guam
Guam ( ; ) is an island that is an Territories of the United States, organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. Guam's capital is Hagåtña, Guam, Hagåtña, and the most ...
anian lawyer, judge, and moderate
Republican politician. She served as the sixth and thirteenth (fourth elected)
Attorney General of Guam, a
U.S. territory, from 1987 to 1994 and from 2015 to 2019. She is the longest-serving (11 years) attorney general in Guamanian history and was the first woman to serve as attorney general.
Biography
Barrett-Anderson is the daughter of Jack Barrett (1917–1987) and Concepcion "Chong" Cruz Barrett (1915–1993), a former senator of the
Guam Legislature. Barrett-Anderson earned her B.A. at the
University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...
and her J.D. at the
University of Santa Clara School of Law. She was the first
Chamorro woman to be admitted to practice law in Guam. She operated a private law practice on Guam until she was appointed Attorney General by Governor
Joseph Franklin Ada in 1987. She later won election to the office.
She resigned as attorney general in 1994 to run for the
Guam Legislature, where she served two terms.
In 1997, she was appointed to the
Superior Court of Guam by Governor
Carl T.C. Gutierrez, and she was confirmed as a judge by the Legislature in 1998.
In 1990, she opposed the enactment of a law restricting
abortion
Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...
to cases in which the life of the mother is threatened. When it passed and became the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S., she said her role had "now shifted to one of law enforcement".
In 2014, twenty years after she left the post of Attorney General, she ran again for the office and won, defeating incumbent
Leonardo Rapadas by a wide margin in the
November 2014 general election.
In April 2015, Barrett-Anderson ordered the director of the Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services to begin processing
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...
licenses on April 15, 2015, which would have made Guam the first U.S. territory to
allow same-sex marriage.
See also
*
First women lawyers around the world
This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in each country. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are the first women in their country to achieve a certain distinction su ...
*
List of female state attorneys general in the United States
References
External links
Official site
, -
1953 births
21st-century Guamanian politicians
Attorneys general of Guam
Chamorro people
Guamanian judges
Guamanian lawyers
Living people
Members of the Legislature of Guam
Santa Clara University alumni
University of San Francisco alumni
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