Suzanne B. Conlon (born 1939) is a United States federal judge.
Born in Portland, Oregon, Conlon received a B.A. from Mundelein College in 1963, a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1968, and a Diploma in Foreign and Comparative Law from the University of London in 1971. She was a law clerk to the Hon. Edwin Robson, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois from 1968 to 1971. She was in private practice in Chicago, Illinois from 1972 to 1975. She was a member of the faculty of DePaul University from 1972 to 1975, as an assistant professor from 1972 to 1973 and a lecturer from 1973 to 1975. She was an assistant United States Attorney of the Northern District of Illinois from 1976 to 1977, of the Central District of California from 1977 to 1982, and in Illinois again from 1982 to 1986. She was assistant general counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 1986, and was executive director of the Commission from 1986 to 1987. She was a special counsel to Associate U.S. Attorney General Stephen S. Trott in 1988. She has been an Adjunct professor, Northwestern University School of Law from 1991 to the present.
On April 2, 1987, Conlon was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated by Thomas R. McMillen. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 19, 1988, and received her commission on February 22, 1988. She assumed senior status on April 17, 2004.
In 2011, Conlon ruled in favor of Anita Alvarez (in her official capacity as State's Attorney for Cook County) in the defendant's motion to dismiss ACLU v. Alvarez on the grounds of lack of jurisdiction by the district court. The suit sought to address the constitutionality of a state act that prohibits citizens from audio-taping on-duty police officers without the consent of the officers, with the ACLU arguing that the act ran counter to First Amendment principles.[1]
Conlon has been rated by lawyers as a judge that has the lowest amount of pending cases in the entire Northern District of Illinois court, but has been criticized by other lawyers over her temperament. Lawyers have said to accomplish her goal of a small docket, Conlon makes inappropriate demands on attorneys. Attorneys have been critical on Conlon's scheduling, claiming it can be unrealistic, but is nonetheless enforced inflexibly. The Chicago Bar Association and many judicial rating websites have claimed she has unacceptable behavior for a federal judge. It has been suggested that she has the tendency to use the jury or others to call out attorneys that are late.[2]
Conlon's temperament has been noted in a couple of notable controversies during her tenure as a federal judge. First, she fired a law clerk for refusing to carry her lunch up a flight of stairs when the elevator was not working. Second, she fired a law clerk on September 11, 2001 for complying with a evacuation order on the Senator Everett Dirksen Federal Building in Downtown Chicago.[3]