Jane Louise Kelly (born October 28, 1964) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (in case citations, 8th Cir.) is a United States federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: * Eastern District of Arkansas * Western Dist ...

Early life and education

Kelly was born in 1964 in

Greencastle, Indiana Greencastle is a city in Greencastle Township, Putnam County, Indiana, United States, and the county seat of Putnam County. It was founded in 1821 by Ephraim Dukes on a land grant. He named the settlement for his hometown of Greencastle, Pennsylv ...

to Richard and Judith C. Kelly. She was raised in Greencastle and graduated from Greencastle High School in 1983 as co-

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA) ...

. She received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree, ''summa cum laude'', in 1987, from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

, 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 l ...

, ''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'', from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

, in 1991. She studied pediatrics for one year in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

under a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

in between Duke and Harvard. Her graduating class included

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

Career

After graduation, Kelly was a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

for Donald J. Porter, chief judge of the

United States District Court for the District of South Dakota The United States District Court for the District of South Dakota (in case citations, D.S.D.) is the United States District Court or the Federal district court, whose jurisdiction for issues pertaining to federal law or diversity for the state of ...

in Sioux Falls,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

. She then clerked for

David R. Hansen David Rasmussen Hansen (born March 16, 1938) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern Dist ...

, a judge of the

. During the 1993–94 academic year, Kelly taught as a visiting instructor at the

University of Illinois College of Law The University of Illinois College of Law (Illinois Law or UIUC Law) is the law school of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a public university in Champaign, Illinois. It was established in 1897 and offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S ...

. Kelly became an assistant federal public defender in the Northern District of Iowa, in 1994 and served as the supervising attorney in the Cedar Rapids,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

office, from 1999 to 2013.

Federal judicial service

On January 31, 2013,

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

nominated Kelly to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the

, to the seat vacated by Judge

Michael Joseph Melloy Michael Joseph Melloy (born January 15, 1948) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Education and military service He was born in Dubuque, Iowa and graduated from Wahlert High Sch ...

, who assumed

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

, on February 1, 2013. Her nomination was reported on a voice vote of 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 ...

, on March 22, 2013. The Senate confirmed Kelly by a 96–0 vote on April 24, 2013. She received her commission on April 25, 2013. In March 2016, Kelly was reported as a potential nominee for the Supreme Court to replace the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The conservative Judicial Crisis Network ran ads against her to forestall the nomination.

Notable cases

* In July 2017, Kelly dissented when the ''

en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller p ...

'' Eighth Circuit found, by a vote of 7—2, that the National Labor Relations Act did not protect

Jimmy John's Jimmy John's is an American sandwich chain headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. The business was founded by Jimmy John Liautaud in 1983. After Liautaud graduated from high school, his father gave him a choice to either join the military or sta ...

employees from being fired for putting up

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

posters seeking

sick leave Sick leave (or paid sick days or sick pay) is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because sic ...

. *On August 23, 2019, Kelly dissented when the Eighth Circuit ruled in favor of a religious exemption from a state's anti-discrimination law. *On September 4, 2019, Kelly dissented when the Eighth Circuit by a 2—1 vote denied a female student's Title IX claim against her university for failure to protect her against stalking and sexual harassment. *Five days before Election Day 2020, the 8th circuit ruled that all Minnesota ballots received after Election Day should be set aside, leaving it to the district court whether those ballots should be thrown out. Kelly strongly dissented, noting that Minnesota voters had already been informed that ballots received by Election Day could be counted as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. As state officials urged voters to turn in ballots sooner rather than later as a result of this ruling, only 2,447 ballots arrived after Election Day, causing the plaintiffs to drop their case. *Kelly authored a June 9, 2021 order that blocked part of a Missouri abortion law that would ban abortion after 8 weeks.

Personal life

In 2004, Kelly was attacked while jogging in a park in Cedar Rapids, brutally beaten and left barely conscious; her assailant was never identified.Public defender attacked while jogging in C.R.
, ''The Courier'' (June 30, 2004).

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Jane L. 1964 births Living people 21st-century American judges Duke University alumni Harvard Law School alumni Iowa lawyers Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit People from Greencastle, Indiana People from Sioux Falls, South Dakota Public defenders United States court of appeals judges appointed by Barack Obama University of Illinois faculty 21st-century American women judges Fulbright alumni