Jacqueline Gleeson

Jacqueline Sarah Gleeson (born 7 March 1966) is an Australian jurist. She has been a Justice of the High Court of Australia since 1 March 2021, and was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, based in Sydney, from April 2014 to February 2021.

Early life and education

Gleeson is the eldest of four children of former Chief Justice of Australia Murray Gleeson and Robyn Gleeson. Speaking about her upbringing, Gleeson stated that "my wellbeing and development was my mother's job and she can justly take credit for any success of mine." She was educated at Monte Sant'Angelo Mercy College and attended Sancta Sophia College, University of Sydney, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts in 1986 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1989.

Federal Court

Gleeson was appointed to the Federal Court by Attorney-General George Brandis on 15 April 2014, replacing retired Justice Dennis Cowdroy. Gleeson held that a company promoting a scheme "how to buy a house for $1" had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct. Gleeson was a member of the Full Court of the Federal Court that unanimously upheld an appeal by the Australian Defence Force, finding that the ADF had not breached the implied freedom of political communication when it terminated Gaynor's commission in the army reserve after he expressed anti-homosexual and anti-Islamic views. The High Court refused special leave to appeal against the decision. In June 2019, Gleeson found in favour of Kimberly-Clark Australia in Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) case against them for the claim that "flushable wipes" were in fact safely flushable in Australia's sewerage system, saying that although they contributed to household sewerage system blockages in an unknown number of instances, even faecal matter and toilet paper contributed to those problems. ACCC argued unsuccessfully that Kimberly-Clark shouldn't be able to take advantage of the difficulty to isolate individual causes in individual cases, and that it was a significant cause of systematic issues.

High Court On 28 October 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Christian Porter announced that Gleeson and Simon Steward would be appointed to the High Court of Australia to fill the vacancies caused by upcoming retirements of Geoffrey Nettle and Virginia Bell. She began her term on 1 March 2021 in succession to Bell.