Sandra Lynch | |
|---|---|
| Senior Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit | |
| Assumed office December 31, 2022 | |
| Chief Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit | |
| In office June 16, 2008 – June 16, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Michael Boudin |
| Succeeded by | Jeffrey R. Howard |
| Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit | |
| In office March 17, 1995 – December 31, 2022 | |
| Appointed by | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Stephen Breyer |
| Succeeded by | Julie Rikelman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1946-07-31)July 31, 1946 (age 79) Oak Park, Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Wellesley College (BA) Boston University (JD) |
Sandra Lea Lynch (born July 31, 1946)[1] is an American lawyer who serves as aseniorUnited States circuit judge of theUnited 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.
Lynch was born inOak Park, Illinois.[3] She received aBachelor of Arts fromWellesley College in 1968, and aJuris Doctor from theBoston University School of Law in 1971.[3] She was an editor of theBoston University Law Review.[4]
From 1971 to 1973, Lynch served as alaw clerk for JudgeRaymond James Pettine of theU.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.[3] At the time, a woman law clerk was so unusual that Lynch was profiled in aBoston Evening Globe article.[4] She then went on to serve as an assistant state attorney general for theCommonwealth of Massachusetts from 1973 to 1974 and general counsel for theMassachusetts Department of Education from 1974 to 1978.[3]
Lynch was in private practice from 1978 until being appointed to the First Circuit.[3] Lynch was a partner at the law firm ofFoley, Hoag, & Eliot at theirBoston office,[5] and the first woman to lead the firm's litigation department.[6] At Foley, Hoag, Lynch was part of the team that representedW.R. Grace in the connection with agroundwater contamination lawsuit later profiled in the workA Civil Action.[4] Lynch was also involved in theBoston school desegregation litigation.[4]
She served as an instructor at theBoston 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 theBoston Bar Association.[5]
PresidentBill Clinton nominated Lynch to theU.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on September 19, 1994, but theUnited States Senate never voted on the nomination. Clinton renominated Lynch on January 11, 1995, to fill the seat vacated by JudgeStephen Breyer, who was elevated to theSupreme Court of the United States on August 3, 1994. TheAmerican Bar Association'sStanding 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 avoice 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 theJudicial Conference of the United States over the same period.[3] In February 2022, Lynch announced plans to assumesenior status upon the confirmation of a successor.[9] She assumedsenior status on December 31, 2022.[3]
In 1996, Lynch issued a noted dissent from the denial of rehearingen banc in a case in which an all-male First Circuit panel held that a rape committed at gunpoint by acarjacker did not constitute "serious bodily injury" for purposes of a federal sentencing enhancement. In a strongly worded dissent, Lynch wrote that Congress clearly intended "serious bodily injury" to include abduction and rape. Within several months, Congress clarified the statute to adopt Lynch's position; SenatorEdward M. Kennedy publicly credited Lynch's dissent for prompting the change in the law.[4]
InNatsios 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 inBurma (Myanmar), due to that nation's poorhuman rights record. Lynch found that the state law unconstitutionally intruded into the federal government's power to conduct foreign policy.[10] InCrosby v. National Foreign Trade Council (2000), a unanimous Supreme Court affirmed this ruling, agreeing that state statute was "invalid under theSupremacy 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 inWatson v. United States (2007).[13]
InMassachusetts v. United States Department of Health and Human Services (2012), Lynch joined a unanimous panel in holding (in an opinion written by JudgeMichael Boudin) that theDefense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was an unconstitutional violation of theequal protection principles of theFifth 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'svaccine mandate for health care workers.[15] The Supreme Court refused to review that decision.[16]
Lynch received an Alumnae Achievement Awards fromWellesley College in 1997,[17] and the Haskell Cohn Distinguished Judicial Service Award from theBoston Bar Association in 2011.[6]
Lynch is married and has one son; she lives in theNorth End, Boston.[4]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit 1995–2022 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chief Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit 2008–2015 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
