Charlotte Noelle Sweeney (born 1969) is an American

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

from

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

who serves as a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Colorado The United States District Court for the District of Colorado (in case citations, D. Colo. or D. Col.) is a federal court in the Tenth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are ap ...

Early life and education

Sweeney was born in 1969 in

Englewood, Colorado The City of Englewood is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 33,659 at the 2020 United States Census. Englewood is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Stati ...

. She received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from

California Lutheran University California Lutheran University (CLU, Cal Lutheran, or Cal Lu) is a private university in Thousand Oaks, California. It was founded in 1959 and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but is nonsectarian. It opened in 1960 ...

in 1991 and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

Sturm College of Law The Sturm College of Law ("Denver Law") is the professional graduate law school of the University of Denver. It is one of two law schools in the state of Colorado. Founded in 1892, the Sturm College of Law was one of the first in America's Mountai ...

in 1995.

Career

Sweeney began her career as an associate with LaFond & Clausen, LLC in 1995 and was named a partner at the firm in 1998. From 1999 to 2008, she was a partner with LaFond & Sweeney, LLC. Since 2008, she has been a partner at Sweeney & Bechtold, LLC. In 2019, she helped draft the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act in Colorado.

Federal judicial service

In May 2021, Sweeney was one of three candidates recommended to the White House by Senators

John Hickenlooper John Wright Hickenlooper Jr. (; born February 7, 1952) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Colorado since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 42nd governor of Colorado from 2011 to 20 ...

and

Michael Bennet Michael Farrand Bennet (born November 28, 1964) is an American attorney, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Colorado, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was appointed t ...

. On August 5, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Sweeney to serve as a

of the

. President Biden nominated Sweeney to the seat vacated by Judge R. Brooke Jackson, who assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...

on September 30, 2021. On October 20, 2021, a hearing on her nomination was held before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...

. On December 2, 2021, the

were deadlocked on her nomination by an 11–11 vote. On January 3, 2022, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

; she was renominated the same day. On January 20, 2022, the committee were deadlocked on her nomination by an 11–11 vote. The Senate voted on a motion to discharge her nomination from committee on May 11, 2022 by a 51–49 vote. On May 24, 2022, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 48–42 vote. On May 25, 2022, her nomination was confirmed by a 48–46 vote. She received her judicial commission on July 18, 2022. She is the first openly LGBT federal judge in Colorado and the first openly LGBT woman to serve as a federal district court judge west of the Mississippi.

Associations and memberships

Sweeney previously led the labor and employment section of the

Colorado Bar Association The Colorado State Bar Association (CBA), founded in 1897, is a voluntary bar association for the state of Colorado. There are 26 local bars within the organization. The CBA works for the common interests of attorneys and judges and is a non-prof ...

as well as the Plaintiff Employment Lawyers Association. She is a member of the Colorado LGBT Bar Association. From 2016 to 2022, she served on the board of directors of the

Matthew Shepard Foundation The Matthew Shepard Foundation is an LGBT nonprofit organization, headquartered in Casper, Wyoming, which was founded in December 1998 by Dennis and Judy Shepard in memory of their son, Matthew. The Foundation runs education, outreach, and adv ...

, and as interim

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

from 2021 to 2022.

References

External links