Deanell Reece Tacha (born January 26, 1946) is a retired United States circuit judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She was the Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law from 2011 to 2016.
Deanell Reece Tacha
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
Chief Judge — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Born 1946 in Goodland, KS
FJC ID: 2330
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 144/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 1,448/year
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1985–2011
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Female
- Race
- White
Prior employment
Dean · 2011–2017- Judicial Conference of the United StatesMember · 2001–2007
Commissioner · 1994–1998
Faculty · 1974–1985- Douglas County [Kansas] Legal Aid ClinicDirector · 1974–1977
- Private practice, Concordia, Kansas1973–1974
- Private practice, Washington, D.C.1973
- special assistant to the Secretary of LaborWhite House Fellow · 1971–1972
Appointments
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth CircuitChief Judge1985–2011 · Appointed by Ronald Reagan (Republican)Term ended: Retirement
Education
J.D. · 1971- University of KansasB.A. · 1968