Allison H. Eid

Allison Lynn Hartwell Eid (born January 1965) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She previously served as an associate justice of the Colorado Supreme Court. Early life and education Born in Seattle and raised in Spokane, Washington by a single mother, Eid earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies with distinction in 1987 from Stanford University, where she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. After graduating, she served as a Special Assistant and Speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan Secretary of Education, William Bennett. She left the Department of Education to attend the University of Chicago Law School, where she was an articles editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. She graduated in 1991 with a Juris Doctor with high honors and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Legal career After graduating from law school, Eid served as a law clerk for Judge Jerry Edwin Smith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and then for justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States. After completing her clerkships, she went on to become a commercial and appellate litigator at the law firm of Arnold & Porter. In 1998, she left Arnold & Porter to serve as an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School, where she taught courses on Constitutional law, torts, and federalism. Colorado Solicitor General and Supreme Court of Colorado service In 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Eid to serve on the Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise, which writes the history of the U.S. Supreme Court and sponsors the Oliver Wendell Holmes Lecture. In 2005, Republican Attorney General John Suthers appointed Eid to serve as Solicitor General of Colorado. A year later, Colorado Governor Bill Owens appointed Eid to serve as the 95th justice of the Colorado Supreme Court on February 15, 2006. She took office on March 13, 2006. In 2008, 75% of Colorado voters voted to retain Eid on the Supreme Court.