Mary Kathryn Beck Briscoe (born April 4, 1947) is a Senior

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Colorado * District of Kansas * Distr ...

Early life and education

Briscoe was born in Council Grove,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

, and grew up on a farm near that community. She graduated from Dwight Rural High School in 1965 as her small class's

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 ...

, according to a June 1, 1995 article in the Kansas City Star. She then earned 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 year ...

degree from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

in 1969. Briscoe received a Juris Doctor from the

University of Kansas School of Law The University of Kansas School of Law is the law school of the University of Kansas, a public research university in Lawrence, Kansas. The University of Kansas Law School was founded in 1893, replacing the earlier Department of Law, which had e ...

in 1973, and earned a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1990. Judge Mary Beck Briscoe
Tenth Circuit Judges

Legal career

Briscoe began her legal career in 1973, first as a legal researcher, then working for the Interstate Commerce Commission as an attorney-examiner. In 1974, she was appointed Assistant United States Attorney for Kansas, eventually becoming the Supervising Attorney for the

Topeka Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central Uni ...

office. She was appointed to the

Kansas Court of Appeals The Kansas Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court for the U.S. state of Kansas. History The Kansas Legislature created the first Kansas Court of Appeals in 1895, to help the Kansas Supreme Court with an increasingly heavy casel ...

in 1984 by Gov. John W. Carlin, where she served until her appointment to the Tenth Circuit. From 1990 until 1995, Briscoe was the

Chief Judge A chief judge (also known as presiding judge, president judge or principal judge) is the highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. According to the Federal judiciary of the United States, th ...

of the Kansas Court of Appeals.

Federal judicial service

On March 14, 1995, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

nominated Briscoe to a seat on the

to replace Judge James Kenneth Logan, who retired on August 31, 1994. Her nomination was uncontroversial, and 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 ...

confirmed her by a

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

on May 25, 1995. She received her commission on May 26, 1995. She served as Chief Judge from May 1, 2010 to October 1, 2015. Briscoe 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 March 15, 2021.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Briscoe, Mary Beck 1947 births Living people 20th-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges Assistant United States Attorneys Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Kansas Court of Appeals Judges People from Council Grove, Kansas United States court of appeals judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Kansas alumni University of Virginia School of Law alumni