William G. Young (Massachusetts)
This article is about William G. Young, the federal judge. If you are looking for information on theOhio Twelfth District Court of Appeals judge, please seeWilliam W. Young.
William G. Young (b. 1940) is afederal judge onsenior status with theUnited States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He joined the court in 1985 after being nominated by PresidentRonald Reagan (R). At the time of appointment, Young served as an associate justice for theSuperior Court of Massachusetts.[1]
Young assumedsenior status on July 1, 2021.[2]
Education
A native of New York State, Young graduated from Harvard University with his bachelor's degree in 1962 and with his law degree in 1967. Young also served as a US Army Captain from 1962 to 1964.[1]
Professional career
Young started his legal career as a law clerk for former State Chief Justice Raymond Wilkins of theMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1967 to 1968. Young also spent four years as a private practice attorney licensed in the State ofMassachusetts from 1968 to 1972. Also for two years, Young also served as a part-time special assistant attorney general for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1970 to 1972. From 1972 to 1974, Young served as the chief counsel to Francis Sargent the former Governor of Massachusetts from 1972 to 1974. In 1974, Young resumed private practice work in the State of Massachusetts until 1978 when Young was appointed by Massachusetts GovernorMichael Dukakis as associate justice for theSuperior Court of Massachusetts from 1978 to 1985 when he was appointed to the Federal bench. Also, Young served as a lecturer in law for the Boston College Law School since 1968 and for the Boston University Law School since 1979. Young also served at his alma mater Harvard Law School from 1979 to 1990.[1]
Judicial career
District of Massachusetts
Young was nominated by PresidentRonald Reagan (R) on March 8, 1985, to a new seat created by 98 Stat. 333. Young was confirmed by the U.S.Senate on April 3, 1985, on a voice vote and received commission onApril 4, 1985. Young served as thechief judge of the court from 1999 to 2005.[1]
Young assumedsenior status on July 1, 2021.[2]
Noteworthy cases
Supreme Court grants in part, denies in part federal government's request for stay in National Institutes of Health grant case
Beginning in February 2025, the National Institutes of Health began terminating certain federal grants to universities, hospitals, laboratories, and other research institutions. In April, several researchers, the American Public Health Association, the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, and Ibis Reproductive Health, filed a lawsuit before theUnited States District Court for the District of Massachusetts challenging the grant terminations.[3][4]
JudgeWilliam G. Young issued a ruling on June 23, 2025, saying several directives and memoranda related to NIH grant guidance were void and ordering the restoration of resulting grant terminations.[5][6] The federal government apealed the ruling to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which declined to stay the district court order.[3]
The federal government filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on July 24, 2025, asking the court to stay the lower court's order.[3] On August 21, 2025, the Supreme Court granted in part and denied in part the federal government's request for a stay. The court granted the stay to pause the restoration of NIH grants, but declined to stay the part of the order that said several directives and memoranda related to NIH grant guidance were void. JusticeAmy Coney Barrett concurred in the decision in full. Chief JusticeJohn Roberts and JusticesElena Kagan,Sonia Sotomayor, andKetanji Brown Jackson would have denied the application in full, while JusticesClarence Thomas, Samuel Altio,Neil Gorsuch, andBrett Kavanaugh would have denied the application in full.[7]
Boston hybrid taxis (2009)
- See also:United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Ophir v. City Of Boston, Civil Action No. 09-10467-WGY)
- See also:United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Ophir v. City Of Boston, Civil Action No. 09-10467-WGY)
On December 11, 2009, Judge Young ruled in favor of the Boston Taxi Owners Association who sued the City of Boston over a new policy requiring taxi owners to switch to hybrids by 2015.
The taxi owners sued on claims that they were bullied by the Boston Police's Hackney Carriage unit to buy the new hybrids. The judge found in his ruling that the new rules instituted by the Boston Police were in violation of theEnergy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975.[8]
Young upholds Massachusetts law prohibiting assault weapons
- See also:United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts ([Url to link Worman v. Healy])
- See also:United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts ([Url to link Worman v. Healy])
On April 5, 2018, Judge Young issued a ruling that upheld a Massachusetts law prohibiting the possession and transfer of assault weapons. He concluded that the law did not infringe onSecond Amendment rights. He cited theUnited States Supreme Court's 2008 decision inDistrict of Columbia v. Heller. InHeller, authored by the late JusticeAntonin Scalia, the court ruled that while the Second Amendment barred prohibitions on handguns, "weapons that are most useful in military service -- M-16 rifles and the like [--] are not protected under the Second Amendment and may be banned."[9][10] Young wrote, "The undisputed facts in this record convincingly demonstrate that the AR-15 and LCMs banned by the Act are 'weapons most useful in military service.'" Based onHeller, Young ruled, "As a matter of law, these weapons...fall outside the scope of the Second Amendment and may be banned."[9]
See also
External links
Officeholder United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts |
- Biography from theFederal Judicial Center
Footnotes
- ↑1.01.11.21.3Federal Judicial Center, "Young, William G.," accessed July 13, 2021
- ↑2.02.1Law360, "Mass. Federal Judge Is Latest To Take Senior Status," March 10, 2021
- ↑3.03.13.2Supreme Court, "Emergency Application NIH vs. APHA," accessed August 26, 2025
- ↑ACLU, "APHA v. NIH," accessed August 26, 2025
- ↑CourtListener, "Order — Document #138," accessed August 26, 2025
- ↑SCOTUSBlog, "Supreme Court allows Trump administration to terminate $783 million in NIH grants linked to DEI initiatives," August 21, 2025
- ↑Supreme Court, "No. 25A103," accessed August 26, 2025
- ↑"Boston Globe" Judge clarifies ruling saying Boston can’t force hybrid taxi switch, December 11, 2009
- ↑9.09.1United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, "Worman v. Healy Opinion," April 5, 2018
- ↑Internal quotations omitted.
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by: NA - new seat | District of Massachusetts 1985–2021 Seat #11 | Succeeded by: TBD |
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| 1983 | Baldock •Barbour •Barry •Bowman •Carman •Carter •Curran •Davis •Dorsey •Feldman •Fish •Flaum •Gibbons •Hallanan •Harris •Hinojosa •Hull •Hupp •Katz •Keenan •Kelly •Kram •Laffitte •Limbaugh, Sr. •Limbaugh, Sr. •Milburn •Nesbitt •Nevas •O'Neill •Rymer •Sharp •Starr •Vinson •Vukasin •Wexler • Woods | ||
| 1984 | Barker •Beezer •Biggers •Billings •Bissell •Boyle •Brewster •Browning •DiCarlo •Duhe •Garcia •George •Hall •Hargrove •Higgins •Hill •Holland •Ideman •Jarvis •Keller •Leavy •Lee •Legge •Leisure •Little •Livaudais •Longobardi •McKibben •Milburn •Newman •Norgle •Prado •Rea •Rosenblatt •Rovner •Scirica •Smith, Jr. •Sneeden •Stotler •Suhrheinrich •Torruella •Wiggins •Wilkinson | ||
| 1985 | Alley •Altimari •Anderson •Aquilino •Archer •Arnold •Baldock •Batchelder •Battey •Broomfield •Brown •Brown •Brunetti •Buckley •Cobb •Conmy •Cowen •Davidson •Dimmick •Duff •Easterbrook •Edgar •Farnan •Fernandez •Fitzpatrick •Fuste •Greene •Gunn •Guy •Hall •Hilton •Holderman •Hughes •Johnson •Jones •Korman •Kozinski •La Plata •Leinenweber •Letts •Lovell •Ludwig •Maloney •Mansmann •Marcus •McDonald •Meredith •Miller •Mills •Miner •Motz •Nelson •Noonan •Porfilio •Revercomb •Rhoades •Ripple •Rodriguez •Rosenbaum •Roth •Ryan •Sam •Scott •Sentelle •Silberman •Sporkin •Stanton •Stapleton •Strand •Strom •Tacha •Tevrizian •Thompson •Todd •Tsoucalas •Walker •Walter •Weber •Williams •Wilson •Wingate •Wolf •Wollman •Young •Zloch | ||
| 1986 | Anderson •Boggs •Bryan •Cedarbaum •Cholakis •Conway •Davies •Dearie •Dubina •Duggan •Edmondson •Fawsett •Fitzwater •Gex •Graham •Hackett •Hansen •Henderson •Hittner •Howard •Jensen •Kay •Kleinfeld •Kosik •Lagueux •Lechner •Magill •Mahoney •Manion •McAvoy •McQuade •Norris •O'Scannlain •Rehnquist •Ryskamp •Scalia •Selya •Simpson •Smalkin •Spencer •Stiehl •Wilkins •Williams •Woodlock •Zatkoff | ||
| 1987 | Alesia •Beam •Bell •Conboy •Cowen •Cummings •Daronco •Doty •Dwyer •Ebel •Ellis •Gadola •Gawthrop •Greenberg •Harrington •Howard •Hoyt •Hutchinson •Kanne •Kelly •Larimer •Leavy •Lew •Marsh •Mayer •McKinney •Michel •Mukasey •Musgrave •Niemeyer •Parker •Phillips •Politan •Pro •Raggi •Reasoner •Reed •Scirica •Sentelle • Smith •Smith •Stadtmueller •Standish •Tinder •Torres •Trott •Turner •Van Antwerpen •Voorhees •Webb •Whipple •Wolin •Wolle •Wood •Zagel | ||
| 1988 | Arcara •Babcock •Brorby •Butler •Cambridge •Camp •Conlon •Cox •Dubois •Duhe •Ezra •Forester •Friedman •Garza •Hutton •Jordan •Kennedy •Lake •Lamberth •Lifland •Lozano •Marovich •Nygaard •Patterson •Schell •Smith •Smith •Tilley •Waldman •Zilly | ||
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- Pages using DynamicPageList3 parser function
- Appointed by Ronald Reagan
- Confirmed 1985
- Federal Article III judges
- Federal judiciary nominee, March 1985
- Judge on senior status, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
- Massachusetts
- Senior federal judge
- Noteworthy case
- District of Massachusetts, Seat 11
- Judge on senior status, District of Massachusetts
- Former Massachusetts superior court judges
- Former chief judge, District of Massachusetts
