Carol Los Mansmann

Carol Los Mansmann ( Los; August 7, 1942 – March 9, 2002) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Education and career

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, of Polish descent, the daughter of Walter Joseph and Regina Mary (Pilarska) Los. Mansmann received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duquesne University in 1964 and a Juris Doctor from Duquesne University School of Law in 1967, one of only two women to graduate that law school in 1967. She was in private practice in Pittsburgh from 1973 to 1979, and was also a special assistant to the Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 1974 to 1979. In this role, she argued the Supreme Court case of Colautti v. Franklin, unsuccessfully defending portions of Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act. Mansmann was on the faculty of the Duquesne University School of Law as an associate professor of law from 1974 to 1983, and later as an adjunct professor of law from 1987 to 1994.

Federal judicial service

Mansmann was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on February 23, 1982, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania vacated by Judge William W. Knox. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 18, 1982, and received commission on March 19, 1982. Her service terminated on April 22, 1985, due to elevation to the court of appeals.