Shirley Hufstedler

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Shirley Mount Hufstedler
Shirley Hufstedler

In office
November 30, 1979 – January 20, 1981
President Jimmy Carter
Preceded by None
Succeeded by Terrel Bell

Born August 24, 1925 (1925-08-24) (age 82)
Denver, Colorado

Shirley Mount Hufstedler (born August 24, 1925 in Denver, Colorado) was United States Secretary of Education under President Jimmy Carter.

Hufstedler has had a distinguished career at the highest levels of legal and public service. She began in private practice in Los Angeles in 1950. From 1960 to 1961, she served as Special Legal Consultant to the Attorney General of California in the complex Colorado River litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1961, she was appointed Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, a position to which she was elected in 1962.

In 1966, she was appointed Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal. President Lyndon Johnson appointed her Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1968. She served for eleven years before President Jimmy Carter appointed her U.S. Secretary of Education.

In 1981, Hufstedler returned to private life, teaching and practicing law. She was a partner in the firm Hufstedler & Kaus, now merged into Morrison & Foerster. She is the recipient of 20 honorary doctoral degrees from American universities. She has served on boards of trustees, governing boards and visiting committees for numerous foundations, institutions, corporations and universities.

Carter would later say that if he had a Supreme Court appointment, he would have nominated Hufstedler.[citation needed]

[edit] Education

Hufstedler attended the University of New Mexico (B.B.A. 1945) and Stanford Law School (LL.B. 1949).

[edit] External links

Preceded by
(none)
United States Secretary of Education
1979 – 1981
Succeeded by
Terrell Bell