Former ALI Council member Judge Shirley Hufstedler, the first woman to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, has passed away at the age of 90.
Nominated by President Lyndon Johnson, Judge Hufstedler joined the Ninth Circuit in 1968. She was the second woman to be appointed to a federal appellate court and for most of her 11-year tenure she was the nation's only female federal appellate judge.
She left the bench in 1979 and became the nation's first U.S. Secretary of Education under President Jimmy Carter and later practiced with Morrison & Foerster for more than 20 years.
Born in Denver, Judge Hufstedler completed her undergraduate work at the University of New Mexico and earned her law degree from Stanford Law School in 1949.
She was elected to The American Law Institute in 1969 and served on the Council from 1974 to 1984.
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