Consuelo María Callahan

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Consuelo María ("Connie") Callahan (born June 9, 1950) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Judge Callahan was born in Palo Alto, California. She was raised in Fremont and attended public schools both in Fremont and in Los Altos. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Honors English in 1972. Callahan then attended law school at McGeorge School of Law, graduating in 1975.

Judge Callahan began her law career as Deputy City Attorney for Stockton, California, then became Deputy District Attorney in San Joaquin County. In that position, Callahan took a special interest in child abuse and sexual assault cases. In 1986, Callahan began her judicial career when she accepted the job as a commissioner of the Stockton Municipal Court. In 1992 she became the first Hispanic woman to be appointed to the San Joaquin County Superior Court. In 1996, Governor Pete Wilson appointed her to serve on the Third District California Court of Appeal in Sacramento. She was nominated on February 12, 2003 by President George W. Bush to be the first Hispanic woman to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Her Senate confirmation hearings took place May 7 and she was confirmed on May 22, 2003 by a 99-0 vote.

Callahan had recently been floated as a possible successor for United States Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor in a report first published by the New York Times on September 20, 2005 ^[1]. She was widely supported by Democrats and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus as being more moderate than many of Bush's other appointees. On October 9, 2005 Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak reported Callahan was one of two finalists for the O'Connor seat, the other being White House Counsel Harriet Miers, whom Bush nominated. ^[2] With Miers withdrawing from consideration on October 27, 2005, Callahan was again mentioned as a possible nominee, but Bush instead nominated Samuel Alito.