California ? Erin Brockovich built a career as a celebrity crusader for weighty causes. But this time she was wrong for the role, according to a federal judge in Santa Ana.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter has dismissed several lawsuits Brockovich filed this summer on behalf of Medicare. Carter ruled that Brockovich, who grew up in Lawrence, Kan., has no standing to sue hospitals and convalescent homes to recoup allegedly illicit funds the health care providers received from the federally funded health plan for seniors and disabled people.

Carter dismissed five of the lawsuits last month and this week issued tentative dismissals on 24 more.