Amy Howe

May 3 2021

Court names military attorney as second-ever female marshal

Col. Gail Curley, an attorney in the U.S. Army who has advised military leaders on national security law, will be the Supreme Court’s new marshal, the court announced on Monday. Curley succeeds Pamela Talkin, the first woman to serve as marshal, who retired last year after 19 years on the job.

Curley, who will begin her new position on June 21, comes to the court 30 years after graduating from West Point with a bachelor’s degree in political science. She received her law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and two master’s degrees from military graduate schools. During her service in the Army, Curley served in (among other places) Germany and Afghanistan; most recently, she was the chief of the National Security Law Division in the Office of the Judge Advocate General. In that position, she supervised judge advocates and “provided legal advice and support on national security law to senior Army leadership,” according to the court.

As the marshal of the Supreme Court, Curley will play her most visible role whenever the justices take the bench to hear arguments or issue opinions, as she makes the traditional “Oyez, oyez, oyez!” announcement to officially open each session. But Curley will also have broad responsibilities beyond the courtroom, including acting as the Supreme Court’s “chief security officer, facilities administrator, and contracting executive, managing approximately 260 employees, including the Supreme Court Police Force.”

This post is also published on SCOTUSblog.

Amy L Howe
Until September 2016, Amy served as the editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court of the United States; she continues to serve as an independent contractor and reporter for SCOTUSblog. Before turning to full-time blogging, she served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and argued two cases there. From 2004 until 2011, she co-taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford Law School; from 2005 until 2013, she co-taught a similar class at Harvard Law School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
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