Callie V. Granade

Callie Virginia Smith "Ginny" Granade (born 1950)^[1] is a senior district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. She joined the court in 2002 after being nominated by President George W. Bush in 2001.

Early life and education

Born in Lexington, Virginia, Granade graduated from Hollins College with her bachelor's degree in 1972 and later from University of Texas School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree in 1975. She is the granddaughter of former Judge Richard Rives, the federal judge who wrote the majority opinion in Browder v. Gayle finding Montgomery, Alabama's bus segregation unconstitutional.

Legal career

Following law school graduation, she became a law clerk to John Godbold of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit from 1975 to 1976. She was an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Alabama from 1977 to 2001, and an interim U.S. Attorney in that district from 2001 to 2002.

Federal judicial career

On the recommendation of Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, Granade was nominated to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama by President George W. Bush on September 4, 2001, to a seat vacated when Alex T. Howard, Jr. retired from Federal Judicial Service in senior status. Granade was confirmed by the Senate on February 4 and received her commission on February 12, 2002. She served as Chief Judge from 2003 to 2010. She assumed senior status on March 7, 2016.

Searcy v. Strange

On January 23, 2015, Granade issued a ruling striking down Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees of equal protection and due process.^[2]

Sources

• Callie V. Granade at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

• Cook v. Atwood Oceanics^[3]
• Activist judge? Careful jurist? Meet the woman who made gay marriage legal in Alabama, AL.com, February 7, 2015

References