Ellen Lucille Bree Burns (December 13, 1923 – June 3, 2019) was 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 District of Connecticut The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (in case citations, D. Conn.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Connecticut. The court has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. Appeal ...

Education and career

Burns was born in

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

. She 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 from

Albertus Magnus College Albertus Magnus College is a private Catholic university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1925 by the Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs (now Dominican Sisters of Peace). Its campus is in the Prospect Hill ...

in 1944. 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 1947. She was a special assistant to the Commission to Revise the Connecticut General Statutes from 1947 to 1948. She was an attorney for Legislative Legal Services of the State of Connecticut from 1949 to 1973. She was a judge of the Circuit Court of Connecticut from 1973 to 1974. She was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Connecticut from 1974 to 1976. She was a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut from 1976 to 1978.

Federal judicial service

Burns 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 February 15, 1978 to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut vacated by Judge

Mosher Joseph Blumenfeld Mosher Joseph Blumenfeld (March 23, 1904 – November 5, 1988) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Education and career Born on March 23, 1904, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Blumen ...

. 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 May 17, 1978, and received her commission on May 18, 1978, becoming the first female district judge in Connecticut. She served as Chief Judge from 1988 to 1992 and assumed senior status on September 1, 1992. She took inactive senior status on March 31, 2015, meaning that while she remained a federal judge, she no longer heard cases or participated in the business of the court. She died on June 3, 2019, aged 95.

References

Sources

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Who's Who of International Women 2002
1923 births 2019 deaths Albertus Magnus College alumni Yale Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut United States district court judges appointed by Jimmy Carter Lawyers from New Haven, Connecticut Superior court judges in the United States Connecticut state court judges 20th-century American women judges Judges of the Connecticut Superior Court {{Connecticut-state-judge-stub