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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release March 14, 1995

PRESIDENT NAMES MARY BECK BRISCOE TO APPELLATE BENCH

The President today nominated Mary Beck Briscoe to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Briscoe is currently the Chief Judge of the Kansas Court of Appeals, a court on which she has served since 1984. Born in Council Grove, Kansas, Briscoe earned her bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Kansas. Upon graduation, she worked briefly as an attorney-examiner for the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C. and then served for ten years as an Assistant United States Attorney in Topeka and Wichita, where she prosecuted criminal cases and represented federal agencies in civil cases.

Briscoe has long been an active and prominent member of the Kansas legal community and is a Fellow of the Kansas Bar Foundation. She has served as Chair of the Kansas Bar Association's Task Force on Status of Women in the Legal Profession was awarded the Kansas Bar Association Outstanding Service Award in 1992. In addition, Briscoe was the first woman to serve as an Assistant United States Attorney in Kansas, the first to serve as a judge on the Kansas Court of Appeals, and the first to serve as Chief Judge of that court.

Briscoe lives with her husband Charles Arthur Briscoe, also an attorney, in Topeka, Kansas. Upon confirmation, Briscoe would become one of twelve judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which hears cases from Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.

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