Carol Ann Corrigan (born August 16, 1948) is an associate justice 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 ...

Background

Corrigan, the daughter of a newspaperman and a homemaker, grew up in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

city of Stockton, California. She graduated from Saint Mary's High School in Stockton, and attended the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, then women-only,

Holy Names College Holy Names University is a private Roman Catholic university in Oakland, California. It was founded by and remains affiliated with the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. It was founded in 1868 and plans to close in 2023. History Th ...

in Oakland, graduating in 1970. After a brief stint in a graduate program in psychology, Corrigan enrolled at the

University of California, Hastings College of the Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California as ...

, where she served as Notes and Comments Editor of the ''

Hastings Law Journal Hastings Law Journal is the oldest law journal at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. It began in 1949 in San Francisco, California. As of 1997, it is under the umbrella of the O'Brien Center for Scholarly Publications. Th ...

''. She received her Juris Doctor degree in 1975 and was admitted to the

California bar The State Bar of California is California's official attorney licensing agency. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, prescribing appropriate disciplin ...

the same year. Corrigan worked as a prosecutor in

Alameda County, California Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. Alam ...

from 1975, and as a senior prosecutor from 1985 until 1987 when she was appointed to the county's

Municipal Court City court or municipal court is a court of law with jurisdiction limited to a city or other municipality. It typically addresses "violations of city ordinances and may also have jurisdiction over minor criminal cases...and over certain civil cases ...

. In 1991 she became a Judge of the Alameda County Superior Court, the state's principal trial court there, where she was affectionately known as

Big Bird Big Bird is a Muppet character designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love for the long-running children's television show ''Sesame Street''. An eight-foot two-inch (249 cm) tall bright yellow anthropomorphic bird, he can roller skat ...

. In 1994, Governor

Pete Wilson Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 36th governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as a United States senator from California betw ...

appointed her as an associate justice in the

California Court of Appeal The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. state of California. The state is geographically divided along county lines into six appellate districts.

, First District. She was

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population ...

to a term later in 1994, and re-elected in 1998. There, she served on a commission that overhauled the state's court rules. Corrigan has resided in and around Oakland for most of her adult life.

California Supreme Court

On December 9, 2005,

California Governor The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...

Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated her to the Supreme Court of California to replace Justice

Janice Rogers Brown Janice Rogers Brown (born May 11, 1949) is an American jurist. She served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2005 to 2017 and before that, Associate Justice of the Cal ...

. Corrigan was confirmed in this position January 4, 2006. Corrigan's notable opinions include a March 2, 2017, ruling in ''City of San Jose v. Superior Court'', that emails and text messages on personal devices of government employees are subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act. In 2012, she dissented in a case concerning the

statute of limitations A statute of limitations, known in civil law systems as a prescriptive period, is a law passed by a legislative body to set the maximum time after an event within which legal proceedings may be initiated. ("Time for commencing proceedings") In ...

for claims of abuse by a priest. In 2011, she authored the majority opinion in '' Save the Plastic Bag Coalition v. City of Manhattan Beach'', in which the court upheld a city ordinance banning plastic bags, reversing the appellate court. In 2008, she wrote a dissent in the same-sex marriage case, ''

In re Marriage Cases ''In re Marriage Cases'', 43 Cal. 4th 757 (Cal. 2008) was a California Supreme Court case where the court held that laws treating classes of persons differently based on sexual orientation should be subject to strict judicial scrutiny, and that ...

''. In 2022, Corrigan upheld a lower-court order that forced UC Berkeley to cut its enrollment numbers after a group of Berkeley residents sued the university. The Berkeley residents claimed that UC Berkeley was violating the California Environmental Quality Act by expanding its enrollment numbers.

References

Video

External links

Carol A. Corrigan
California State Courts.

California Court of Appeal, First District.

California State Courts. {{DEFAULTSORT:Corrigan, Carol 1948 births Living people 20th-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges American women lawyers District attorneys in California Holy Names University alumni Judges of the California Courts of Appeal Justices of the Supreme Court of California People from Stockton, California Superior court judges in the United States University of California, Hastings College of the Law alumni Women in California politics