Mary C. Morgan
Mary Carolyn Morgan is a judge of the San Francisco County Superior Court and former judge of the San Francisco Municipal Court. She was the first openly lesbian judge appointed in the United States. Early life and education. Morgan received a B.A. from Smith College in 1967 and a J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1972. Career. From 1981 to 1993, Morgan served on the San Francisco Municipal Court. On April 3, 2003, Governor Gray Davis appointed Morgan to the San Francisco County Superior Court. Personal. At the time of her appointment to the  San Francisco County Superior Court, Morgan's partner was Roberta Achtenberg, who served as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton Administration. Senator Jesse Helms, who had referred to Achtenberg as "that damn lesbian", had held up Achtenberg's nomination and was particularly outraged at discovering that Achtenberg and Morgan had kissed during a gay pride parade.