Christine Anne Luchok Fallon (born November 17, 1952) is an American lawyer. She served as the 16th

Reporter of Decisions The Reporter of Decisions (sometimes known by other titles, such as Official Reporter or State Reporter) is the official responsible for publishing the decisions of a court. Traditionally, the decisions were published in books known as case repor ...

of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. Fallon began her service in 2011 and retired in September 2020. She is the first woman to hold the position.

Education

Fallon earned her bachelor's degree from

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

in 1974, graduating magna cum laude. She earned her J.D. from the

Columbus School of Law The Columbus School of Law, also known as Catholic Law or CUA Law, is the law school of the Catholic University of America, a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. More than 400 Juris Doctor students attend Catholic Law ...

at the

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

in 1977.

Career

Early law career

Fallon practiced law in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, and

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In ...

. From 1982 to 1989, Fallon served as a legal editor at the Research Institute of America in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where she supervised seven attorneys.

Deputy Reporter of Decisions

Fallon served as the Supreme Court's Deputy Reporter of Decisions from February 1989 until March 2011. She wrote syllabi and edited the opinions of the Court for release and publication in the ''

United States Reports The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record ( law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, orders, case tables (list of every case decided), in alphabetical order both by the name of the petitioner ...

''.

Reporter of Decisions

In March 2011, Fallon was promoted to the Supreme Court's

. She is the first woman to hold the position since its establishment in 1790. Over the course of her career, she has worked on many cases, including ''

Bush v. Gore ''Bush v. Gore'', 531 U.S. 98 (2000), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. On December 8, th ...

'' and the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presi ...

case. On July 7, 2020, the Supreme Court announced that Fallon would be retiring as the Reporter of Court Decisions, effective September 25, 2020, after 11 years as Reporter of Decisions and 31 total years working at the Court.Nina Totenberg
First Women To Hold Top Staff Jobs At Supreme Court Are Retiring
(July 14, 2020). Her successor was announced as

Rebecca Anne Womeldorf Rebecca Anne Womeldorf is an American lawyer serving as the reporter of decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. Womeldorf was appointed in December 2020 and began her service in January 2021. She is the second woman to hold the posit ...

Organizational memberships

Fallon has been active in the Association of Reporters of Judicial Decisions, having served as president, vice president, and secretary.

External links

SCOTUS Notebook: The Mechanics and the Art of Court DecisionsMartindale-Hubbell Law Profile

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fallon, Christine Luchok 1952 births Living people Reporters of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States 21st-century American lawyers 20th-century American lawyers West Virginia University alumni Columbus School of Law alumni