This page was current at the end of the official's last term in officecovered by Ballotpedia. Pleasecontact us with any updates.

Marvin Aspen

Nonpartisan

United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Tenure

2002 - Present

Years in position

23

Prior offices:

United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Years in office: 1979 - 2002

Education

Bachelor's

Northwestern University, 1956

Law

Northwestern University School of Law, 1958

Personal

Birthplace

Chicago, IL

Contact

Official website

Marvin E. Aspen is anArticle III federal judge in theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He joined the court in 1979 after being nominated by PresidentJimmy Carter. Aspen is onsenior status.

Early life

A native Chicago citizen, Aspen graduated from Northwestern University inEvanston, IL with both his bachelor's and juris doctorate degree in 1956 and 1958.^[1]

Professional career

Aspen has had a long and distinguished legal career leading up to his federal judicial career. Aspen started out as a Law clerk in the Court of Claims Section for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC in 1958. After law school, Aspen had six years of military service in the Illinois National Guard from 1958 to 1960 and also from 1960 to 1964 in the Air Force Reserve as an reserve airman. After being a law clerk, Aspen went into Private practice inChicago from 1958 to 1959 and also one year later in 1971.In 1960, Aspen became an Assistant state's attorney inCook County from 1960 to 1963. In 1963, Aspen became Assistant corporation counsel and Head of the Appeals and Review Division for the City of Chicago from 1963 to 1971. In 1971, Aspen started his judicial Career as a circuit court judge for Cook County from 1971-1979. To this date Aspen remains an Adjunct professor of law for Northwestern University since 1969.^[1]

Judicial career

Northern District of Illinois

Aspen was nominated by Jimmy Carter on April 30, 1979, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629 by Congressional Action. Aspen was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 23, 1979, and received commission onJuly 24, 1979. Aspen served as chief judge of the Court from 1995-2002. Aspen assumed senior status onJuly 1, 2002.^[1]

See also

• United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

External links

Suggest a link

• Aspen Biography from theFederal Judicial Center

Footnotes

v • e Federal judges who have served theUnited States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
Active judges	Chief Judge: Virginia Kendall  •  Robert Dow  •  Sharon Coleman  •  Edmond E. Chang  •  Jorge L. Alonso  •  Franklin U. Valderrama  •  John Tharp, Jr.  •  Mary Rowland  •  Sara Lee Ellis  •  Andrea R. Wood  •  Manish Shah  •  Iain D. Johnston  •  John Robert Blakey  •  LaShonda A. Hunt  •  Martha Pacold  •  Steven Seeger  •  John Kness  •  Jeffrey Cummings  •  Sunil Harjani  •  Lindsay Jenkins  •  Jeremy Daniel  •  Georgia Alexakis  •  April Perry
Senior judges	Marvin Aspen  •  Elaine Bucklo  •  Suzanne Conlon  •  Robert Gettleman  •  Joan Gottschall  •  Ronald Guzman  •  Frederick Kapala  •  Matthew Kennelly  •  Charles Kocoras  •  Joan Lefkow  •  George Marovich  •  Charles Norgle  •  Rebecca Pallmeyer  •  Philip Reinhard  •  James Zagel  •  Thomas M. Durkin  •
Magistrate judges	Jeffrey Cole  •  Susan Cox  •  Maria Valdez  •  Sheila Finnegan  •  Jeffrey Gilbert  •  Young Kim (Illinois)  •  Daniel G. Martin  •  David Weisman  •  Gabriel Fuentes  •  Lisa Jensen  •  Beth Jantz  •  Heather McShain  •  Margaret Schneider  •
Former Article III judges	James Holderman  •  Wayne Andersen  •  Ruben Castillo  •  David Coar  •  John Darrah  •  Samuel Der-Yeghiayan  •  John F. Grady  •  William Hart  •  William Hibbler  •  Harry Leinenweber  •  George Lindberg  •  Blanche Manning  •  James B. Moran  •  John Nordberg  •  Ann Williams (Federal judge)  •  Paul Plunkett  •  Joel Flaum  •  Brian Duff  •  Ilana Rovner  •  Mark Filip  •  Milton Shadur  •  Thomas Drummond  •  Henry Williams Blodgett  •  William Bauer  •  Philip Tone  •  Peter Stenger Grosscup  •  Christian Cecil Kohlsaat  •  Solomon Hicks Bethea  •  Kenesaw Mountain Landis  •  George Albert Carpenter  •  Adam Cliffe  •  James Herbert Wilkerson  •  John Peter Barnes  •  George Johnson (Illinois)  •  William Harrison Holly  •  Philip Leo Sullivan  •  Michael Igoe  •  William Lynch (Illinois)  •  James Alesia  •  Richard Austin  •  Nicholas Bua  •  William Campbell (Illinois)  •  John Crowley (Illinois)  •  Bernard Decker  •  Susan Getzendanner  •  Julius Hoffman  •  Alfred Kirkland  •  Winfred Knoch  •  Walter LaBuy  •  George Leighton  •  Abraham Marovitz  •  Prentice Marshall  •  Frank McGarr  •  Richard McLaren  •  Thomas McMillen  •  Julius Miner  •  Alexander Napoli  •  James B. Parsons  •  Joseph Perry (Illinois)  •  Edwin Robson  •  Stanley Roszkowski  •  Elwyn Shaw  •  Hubert Will  •  Charles Woodward  •  Gary Feinerman  •  John Z. Lee (Illinois)  •  Nancy Maldonado  •
Former Chief judges	Marvin Aspen  •  Ruben Castillo  •  John F. Grady  •  Charles Kocoras  •  James B. Moran  •  Rebecca Pallmeyer  •  John Peter Barnes  •  Philip Leo Sullivan  •  William Campbell (Illinois)  •  Frank McGarr  •  James B. Parsons  •  Edwin Robson  •

v • e Federal judges nominated byJimmy Carter
1977	Ballantine •Bownes •Boyle •Bua •Carr •Clark •Cowan •Daly •Filippine •Higginbotham •Hoeveler •Hug •Johnstone •Kane •Keith •Leval •Logan •MacLaughlin •McKay •Melton •Merritt •Murphy •Nickerson •Oberdorfer •Roszkowski •Roy •Rubin •Sifton •Tang •Vance •Veron
1978	Arnold •Baker •Boyle •Burns •Campos •Claiborne •Collins •Cook •Devine •Diamond •Duplantier •Edenfield •Friedman •Gonzalez •Greene •Jenkins •Lowe •Mazzone •McMillian •O'Brien •Pfaelzer •Phillips •Pollak •Sand •Shapiro •Simmons •Smith •Sweet •Tanner •Wiseman •Ziegler
1979	Ackerman •Alarcon •Anderson •Arceneaux •Arnold •Aspen •Beatty •Beer •Belew •Bertelsman •Bilby •N. Black •S. Black •Bloch •Bowen •Brett •Brooks •Brown •Buchmeyer •Bunton •Burciaga •Cabranes •Carr •Carrigan •Castagna •Cire •Clark •Cohn •Conaboy •Cordova •Crabb •Cudahy •Davis •DeAnda •Debevoise •Edwards •Eginton •Ellison •Enslen •O. Evans •T. Evans •Farris •Ferguson •Fletcher •Frye •Garcia •Garza •B. Gibson •H. Gibson •Gierbolini-Ortiz •Giles •Gilliam •Green •Hall •Hastings •Hatchett •Hatfield •Hatter •Hawkins •Henderson •Higby •Hillman •Houck •Howard •Hudspeth •Hungate •F. Johnson •S. Johnson •N. Jones •S. Jones •Karlton •Kazen •Kearse •Keeton •Kehoe •Kennedy •Kidd •King •Kravitch •Loughlin •Martin •McCurn •McDonald •McNaught •McNichols •Mikva •Mitchell •Moran •Murnaghan •Murphy •D. Nelson •D.W. Nelson •Newblatt •Newman •Overton •Paine •Panner •J. Parker •R. Parker •Penn •Perez-Gimenez •Perry •Politz •Poole •Porter •Pregerson •Price •Rambo •Ramirez •Reavley •Redden •E. Reed •S. Reed •Reinhardt •Renner •Robinson •Rothstein •Sachs •Saffels •Sanders •Sarokin •Schroeder •Schwartz •Seay •Senter •Seymour •Shannon •Shaw •Shoob •Skopil •Sloviter •Sofaer •Spellman •Sprouse •Staker •Tate •Taylor •Thompson •Tidwell •Unthank •Vietor •Vining •Wald •Ward •Weinshienk •West •Wicker •Williams •Winder •Woods •Wright • Zobel
1980	Aguilar •Aldrich •Anderson •Boochever •Breyer •Britt •Cahill •Canby •Carroll •Cerezo •Clemon •S. Ervin •R. Erwin •Getzendanner •Gilmore •Ginsburg •Haltom •Hardy •Henderson •Hobbs •Holschuh •Horton •Howard •Johnson •Keep •Kelly •Kenyon •Kocoras •Marquez •Marshall •Michael •Nixon •Norris •Patel •Polozola •Propst •Quackenbush •Ramsey •Rice •Shadur •Spiegel •Tashima •Thompson •Vela •White •Williams
1981	Heen

	v • e State ofIllinois Springfield (capital)
Elections	What's on my ballot? |Elections in 2026 |How to vote |How to run for office |Ballot measures
Government	Who represents me? |U.S. President |U.S. Congress |Federal courts |State executives |State legislature |State and local courts |Counties |Cities |School districts |Public policy