Amalya Lyle Kearse

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Amalya Lyle Kearse (born June 11, 1937 in Vauxhall, New Jersey^[1]) is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. She took senior status in 2002.

Her father was a postmaster and her mother was a doctor. She attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. A philosophy major and 1959 graduate of Wellesley College, she was the only black woman in her law school class at the University of Michigan. She was an editor of the law review and graduated cum laude in 1962.

She entered private practice in New York City and rose to become a partner in the respected Wall Street firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed.

She was the first woman and only the second black person (after Thurgood Marshall) appointed to the Second Circuit.^[1] In 1992, she was considered by President Bill Clinton for appointment as Attorney General of the United States; the job eventually went to Janet Reno.

Kearse is regarded as a courtly, low-key, center-left jurist. Off the bench, she is perhaps best known as a world-class bridge player; she is a five-time U.S. national champion of the game.

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