Sandra Lynch

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Sandra Lynch
Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
Assumed office
December 31, 2022
Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
In office
June 16, 2008 – June 16, 2015
Preceded byMichael Boudin
Succeeded byJeffrey R. Howard
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
In office
March 17, 1995 – December 31, 2022
Appointed byBill Clinton
Preceded byStephen Breyer
Succeeded byJulie Rikelman
Personal details
Born (1946-07-31) July 31, 1946 (age 77)
Oak Park, Illinois, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationWellesley College (BA)
Boston University (JD)

Sandra Lea Lynch (born July 31, 1946)[1] is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She is the first woman to serve on that court.[2] Lynch served as chief judge of the First Circuit from 2008 to 2015.

Early life and education

Lynch was born in

Boston University Law Review.[4]

Professional career

From 1971 to 1973, Lynch served as a

Massachusetts Department of Education from 1974 to 1978.[3]

Lynch was in private practice from 1978 until being appointed to the First Circuit.

Boston school desegregation litigation.[4]

She served as an instructor at the

Boston University Law School from 1973 to 1974 and as special counsel to the Judicial Conduct Commission of Massachusetts from 1990 to 1992.[3]

From 1992 to 1993, Lynch served as president of the Boston Bar Association.[5]

Federal judicial service

President

Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates judicial nominees, unanimously rated Lynch as "well qualified" (the committee's highest rating).[7] She was confirmed by the Senate on March 17, 1995, by a voice vote,[8] and received her commission on the same day.[3] She served as chief judge from 2008 to 2015, and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States over the same period.[3] In February 2022, Lynch announced plans to assume senior status upon the confirmation of a successor.[9] She assumed senior status on December 31, 2022.[3]

Notable rulings

In 1996, Lynch issued a noted dissent from the denial of rehearing

Edward M. Kennedy publicly credited Lynch's dissent for prompting the change in the law.[4]

In Natsios v. National Foreign Trade Council (1998), Lynch wrote an opinion striking down Massachusetts's "Burma law"—an act, enacted two years earlier, that barred state agencies from contracting with companies that do business in

human rights record. Lynch found that the state law unconstitutionally intruded into the federal government's power to conduct foreign policy.[10] In Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council (2000), a unanimous Supreme Court affirmed this ruling, agreeing that state statute was "invalid under the Supremacy Clause of the National Constitution owing to its threat of frustrating federal statutory objectives".[11]

In 2006, Lynch found that trading a gun for drugs constitutes a "use" of a gun for purposes of a criminal law against using a firearm in relation to drug trafficking.[12] Her ruling was later abrogated by the Supreme Court's decision in Watson v. United States (2007).[13]

In Massachusetts v. United States Department of Health and Human Services (2012), Lynch joined a unanimous panel in holding (in an opinion written by Judge Michael Boudin) that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was an unconstitutional violation of the equal protection principles of the Fifth Amendment, because it denied to same-sex couples the federal benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples.[14]

On October 19, 2021, Lynch wrote the majority opinion that upheld Maine's

vaccine mandate for health care workers.[15] The Supreme Court refused to review that decision.[16]

Awards and honors

Lynch received an Alumnae Achievement Awards from Wellesley College in 1997,[17] and the Haskell Cohn Distinguished Judicial Service Award from the Boston Bar Association in 2011.[6]

Personal life

Lynch is married and has one son; she lives in the North End, Boston.[4]

References

  1. ^ Judiciary, United States Congress Senate Committee on the (1996). Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Fourth Congress, First Session, on Confirmation of Appointees to the Federal Judiciary. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 23.
  2. ISBN 9780837904245. Retrieved 2014-12-11.[permanent dead link
    ]
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sandra Lynch at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Jonathan Saltzman, "Jurist's career of firsts hits a milestone," Boston Globe (June 16, 2008).
  5. ^ a b Laurel J. Sweet, Judge Sandra L. Lynch breaks court's glass ceiling, Boston Herald (June 16, 2008).
  6. ^ a b BBA Honors Chief Judge Sandra L. Lynch with Haskell Cohn Award (press release), Boston Bar Association.
  7. Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary
    .
  8. ^ PN158 — Sandra L. Lynch — The Judiciary, Congress.gov, 104th Congress (1995-1996).
  9. ^ "1st Circuit's first woman judge to retire from active service". Reuters. March 1, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
  10. ^ Linda Greenhouse, Justices to Decide Foreign Policy Question in Massachusetts Boycott of Myanmar, New York Times (November 30, 1999).
  11. ^ Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council, 530 U.S. 363 (2000).
  12. ^ "Recent Case: First Circuit Holds That Trading Drugs for Guns Constitutes "Use" of a Gun for Purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 924(C)" (PDF). Harvard Law Review. 120: 852. 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 7, 2017.
  13. ^ "Watson v. United States, 552 U.S. 74 (2007)". Justia Law.
  14. ^ Recent Case: Equal Protection — Sexual Orientation - First Circuit Invalidates Statute that Defines Marriage as Legal Union Between One Man and One Woman. — Massachusetts v. United States Department of Health & Human Services, 682 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2012), 126 Harv. L. Rev. 611 (2012).
  15. ^ "JANE DOES 1-6; JOHN DOES 1-3; JACK DOES 1-1000; JOAN DOES 1-1000, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. JANET T. MILLS, in her official capacity as Governor of the State of Maine" (PDF). ca1.uscourts.gov. October 19, 2021. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  16. ^ U.S. Supreme Court. "No. 21-717".
  17. ^ Alumnae Achievement Awards 1997: Sandra L. Lynch '68, Wellesley College.

Further reading

  • "Fearless First: BUSL Graduate Sandra Lynch". The Record: The Alumni Magazine of Boston University School of Law: 2–3. Summer 2006.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
1995–2022 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
2008–2015 		Succeeded by
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