[1] Born in Lexington, Virginia, Granade is the granddaughter of former Judge Richard Rives of the United States Court of Appeal for the Fifth Circuit, the federal judge who wrote the majority opinion in Browder v. Gayle (1956) finding Montgomery, Alabama's bus segregation unconstitutional.
She graduated from Hollins College with her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1972 and later from University of Texas School of Law with a Juris Doctor in 1975.
Among her high-profile cases in her 25 years as a federal prosecutor, Granade led the successful prosecution of Mobile City Commissioner Lambert C. Mims for extortion.
[1] On the recommendation of Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, President George W. Bush nominated Granade to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama on September 4, 2001, after Judge Alex T. Howard Jr. assumed senior status.
Perhaps her highest profile ruling was issued on January 23, 2015, when Judge Granade struck down Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage as violating the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees of equal protection and due process.