Tanya Chutkan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Columbia | |
| Assumed office June 5, 2014 | |
| Appointed by | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Seat established |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Tanya Sue Chutkan (1962-07-05)July 5, 1962 (age 63) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | George Washington University (BA) University of Pennsylvania (JD) |
Tanya Sue Chutkan (born July 5, 1962) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as aUnited States district judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Columbia. She was appointed in 2014 by PresidentBarack Obama.
She was the presiding judge over thecriminal trial of then-former U.S. presidentDonald Trump over his allegedattempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, including the events leading up to theattack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. The case never went to trial and was dismissed without prejudice after Trump won the2024 presidential election.
Chutkan was born on July 5, 1962, inKingston, Jamaica.[1] Chutkan has a younger brother, Norman, and a younger sister, Robynne, both of whom are physicians. She is ofDougla descent. Her father Winston Chutkan is anIndo-Jamaican doctor, and her mother Noelle is anAfro-Jamaican who was one of the leading dancers at theNational Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica.[2][3][4] Noelle is the daughter of Frank Hill, one of the members of thePeople's National Party.[citation needed] Through her mother, Chutkan is a cousin of formerLiverpool andEngland footballerJohn Barnes.[5][6]
Chutkan received aBachelor of Arts degree in 1983 fromGeorge Washington University. She later attended theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was an associate editor of theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law Review. She graduated in 1987 with aJuris Doctor.[7]
From 1987 to 1990, Chutkan was in private practice at the law firm Hogan & Hartson (nowHogan Lovells). From 1990 to 1991, she worked at the law firm of Donovan, Leisure, Rogovin, Huge & Schiller. From 1991 to 2002, she was atrial attorney and supervisor at thePublic Defender Service for the District of Columbia. In 2002, Chutkan joined the law firm ofBoies, Schiller & Flexner, becoming apartner in 2007. Her practice focused on complex civil litigation and specificallyantitrust class action cases.[8][9]
On December 19, 2013, PresidentBarack Obama nominated Chutkan as aUnited States district judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Columbia to a seat created pursuant to 104 Stat. 5089.[10][11] She received a hearing before theUnited States Senate Judiciary Committee on February 25, 2014.[12] On March 27, 2014, her nomination was reported out of committee by avoice vote.[13] On June 3, 2014, theUnited States Senate invokedcloture on her nomination by a 54–40 vote.[14] On June 4, 2014, her nomination was confirmed by a 95–0 vote.[15] She received her judicial commission on June 5, 2014.[9]
In February 2017,Public.Resource.Org was sued by theAmerican Society for Testing and Materials, theNational Fire Protection Association, theAmerican Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, and other entities for scanning and making availablebuilding codes andfire codes which these organizations consider theircopyrighted property.[16][17] Chutkan ruled againstPublic.Resource.Org, ordering all of the standards to be deleted from the Internet.[18] Public.Resource.Org appealed her ruling to theD.C. Circuit, which reversed and remanded her decision in 2018, holding that the fair use doctrines had been improperly applied.[19] In March 2022, Chutkan issued a new ruling that would allow Public.Resource.Org to reproduce 184 standards under fair use, partially reproduce 1 standard, and deny reproduction of 32 standards that were found to differ in substantive ways from those incorporated by law;[20] ASTM et al. has since appealed again to the D.C. Circuit.[21]
In summer 2017, Chutkan presided over theImran Awan and Hina Alvi fraud case.[22][23]
InGarza v. Hargan (2017), Chutkan ordered theOffice of Refugee Resettlement to allow a girl in its care to have anabortion.[24] That ruling was vacated by a panel of the D.C. Circuit, reinstated by the fullen banc D.C. Circuit, and ultimatelymooted by theU.S. Supreme Court.[25] In December 2017, Chutkan granted relief to two additional pregnant minors who sued seeking access to abortion services while in ORR custody.[26] In March 2018, Chutkan certified aclass action and ordered ORR to provide access to abortions to all minors in their custody.[27]
On June 8, 2018, Chutkan blocked until June 20 the release inSyrian Democratic Forces-controlled territory of a dual-nationalitySaudi-American citizen alleged to have joinedISIL. The man, who is now held for nine months inIraq, was planned to be released by the U.S. military – with a new cell phone, some food and water and $4,210 in cash, and his Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) identification card, as soon as the next day.[28][29]
On March 7, 2019, Chutkan ruled thatU.S. Secretary of EducationBetsy DeVos illegally delayed the implementation of the "Equity in IDEA" regulations. These regulations updated how states calculate racial disparities in the identification of children as being eligible for special education, the placement of children in restrictive classroom settings, and the use exclusionary discipline. Chutkan also ruled that theU.S. Department of Education violated the law concerning the spread of regulations by neglecting to provide a "reasoned explanation" for the delay, and failing to account for the costs that child, parents, and society would bear.[30]
On April 26, 2019, Chutkan sentencedMaria Butina to 18 months in prison for conspiring to be an unregistered agent of theRussian government in theUnited States.[31][32]
On November 20, 2019, Chutkan issued apreliminary injunction against theU.S. Department of Justice, finding that federal inmates sentenced to death were likely to succeed in arguing that the federal government's newlethal injection procedure – which uses a single drug,pentobarbital, rather than the three-drug combination previously in place – "exceeds statutory authority" under the Federal Death Penalty Act.[33] Chutkan's order was later reversed by a divided panel of theU.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit,[34] and the case went to theU.S. Supreme Court.[35] The reversal of the injunction was upheld and thirteen federal inmates were executed.[36]
On November 9, 2021, Chutkan denied former PresidentDonald Trump'smotion to keep records from being released to the House Select Committee investigating theattack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.[37][38] TheD.C. Circuit affirmed that decision, and theU.S. Supreme Court declined review.[39]
Chutkan has overseen the trials of more than 30 defendants in cases related to the January 6 Capitol attack. According toThe Washington Post, she has been the toughest sentencing judge in those cases, ordering at least some jail or prison time in all cases, and sometimes exceeding the sentence recommended by prosecutors.[40]
As of August 1, 2023, Chutkan was the judge overseeing Trump'scriminal trial over hisattempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the events leading up to the January 6 Capitol attack.[41]
In a ruling on February 18, 2025, Chutkan declined to issue atemporary restraining order that would have blocked theDepartment of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led byElon Musk under President Donald Trump’s administration, from accessing federal employee data or making personnel changes. This decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by 14 Democratic-led states seeking to limit DOGE’s authority.[42][43] Chutkan determined that the states failed to prove "imminent, irreparable harm," a necessary legal threshold for such an emergency injunction, though she acknowledged their broader concerns about Musk’s unchecked power and theconstitutionality of his role as legitimate questions for future litigation.[44]
Her ex-husband,[45]Peter A. Krauthamer, served as a judge on theSuperior Court of the District of Columbia from 2012 to 2023. They have two sons.[46]
Chutkan donated $1,500 to Barack Obama's campaign between 2008 and 2009.[47]
On January 7, 2024, Chutkan wasdoxxed andswatted.[48]
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ordered the 18-month sentence and said Butina would receive credit for the roughly nine months she has already served.
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| Legal offices | ||
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| New seat | Judge of theUnited States District Court for the District of Columbia 2014–present | Incumbent |
| International | |
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| National | |
