Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
District of Columbia U.S. District Court
Colleen Constance Kollar-Kotelly was born in April 1943 in New York City. She earned an undergraduate degree in English from Catholic University of America and received her Juris Doctor from Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. She clerked at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
She was an attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Appellate Section, later becoming chief legal counsel for St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Department of Health and Human Services, serving there 12 years.
She was appointed to the Superior Court for the District of Columbia by President Ronald Reagan. She took her oath of office in 1984 and later served as the Deputy Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division.
Kollar-Kotelly was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was confirmed by the Senate and received her commission in March 1997. Chief Justice William Rehnquist appointed her to serve on the Financial Disclosure Committee and later as presiding judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, serving from 2002 to 2009.
She is married to John Theodore Kotelly.
In the News…
Federal District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly barred the president’s administration from firing unvaccinated federal employees, moving in favor of plaintiffs who claimed that their employer’s refusal to allow a religious exemption to the vaccine mandate would result in irreparable harm.
The judge issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction prohibiting the firing of both civilian and active-duty military federal employees while their religious exemption pleas are pending.
In her order, Judge Kollar-Kotelly wrote, “None of the civilian employee plaintiffs will be subject to discipline while his or her request for a religious exemption is pending.” She also specified that “active duty military plaintiffs, whose religious exception requests have been denied, will not be disciplined or separated during the pendency of their appeals.”
The court also ordered the defendants in President Biden’s administration, including all the secretaries of the departments in the executive branch, to send an immediate memo confirming that they will not discipline or terminate staff while the issue is being adjudicated. According to the complaint, “plaintiffs, along with hundreds of thousands of other federal employees and active-duty service members will be terminated, discharged or separated on or before November 22, 2021.”
Contact this Leader…
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The Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly
District of Columbia U.S. District Court
333 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001
