Carol Corrigan

Carol Ann Corrigan (born August 16, 1948, in Stockton, California) is a Justice of the California Supreme Court.

Background

Corrigan, the daughter of a newspaperman, grew up in the San Joaquin Valley city of Stockton. She attended the then women-only Catholic Holy Names College in Oakland. After a brief stint in a graduate program in psychology, Corrigan attended the University of California Hastings College of the Law, receiving the degree of Juris Doctor in 1975, She was admitted to the California bar in December of the same year. At UC Hastings, she also served as Notes and Comments Editor of the [http://www.uchastings.edu/hlj Hastings Law Journal] .

Corrigan worked as a prosecutor in Alameda County, California from 1975 until 1987, at which time she was appointed to the since-abolished Municipal Court. She became a judge of the California Superior Court (the state's principal trial court) and in 1994 a justice of the California Court of Appeal. There, she gained a reputation for legal acumen, serving on a commission that overhauled the state's court rules.

Corrigan is unmarried and has resided in and around Oakland, California for most of her adult life.

California Supreme Court

On December 9, 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger nominated her to the Supreme Court of California to replace Justice Janice Rogers Brown, who resigned to accept an appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She was confirmed in this position January 4, 2006.

Notable judicial opinions

*In re Marriage Cases, May 15, 2008 (dissenting from ruling that same-sex marriage ban violates California Constitution).