Michael Boudin

Michael Boudin (Template:IPAc-en ; November 29, 1939 – March 24, 2025) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit from 1992 to 2021. He served as Chief Judge of that court from 2001 to 2008. Before his service on the First Circuit, he was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Early life and education

Boudin was born in Manhattan, New York, on November 29, 1939, the son of poet Jean (Roisman) Boudin and civil liberties attorney Leonard Boudin. He was the older brother of Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin. He was educated at Elizabeth Irwin High School before going on to Harvard University, where he graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts in government. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated first in his class with a Bachelor of Laws in 1964.

Boudin was a law clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1964 to 1965 and then clerked for Justice John Marshall Harlan II of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1965 to 1966.

Legal career

From 1966 to 1987, Boudin practiced law at Covington & Burling, a Washington, D.C., law firm. He worked as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School from 1982 to 1983, and then as a lecturer there from 1983 to 1998. He then served in President Reagan's Justice Department as a deputy assistant United States Attorney General of the Antitrust Division from 1987 to 1990.

Federal judicial service

On May 18, 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominated Boudin to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, to a seat vacated by John H. Pratt. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 3, 1990, and received his commission on August 7, 1990. Boudin served on the District Court for about 18 months, but resigned on January 31, 1992, to return to Massachusetts.

Two months later, on March 20, 1992, President Bush nominated Boudin to an appellate judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, headquartered in Boston, to the seat vacated when Judge Levin H. Campbell assumed senior status. He was confirmed by the Senate on May 21, 1992, and received his commission on May 26, 1992. Boudin served as Chief Judge of the First Circuit from 2001 to 2008. He assumed senior status on June 1, 2013. He retired from service on December 15, 2021.

The New York Times stated that Boudin was "not easy to pigeonhole ideologically". He was described by some as a conservative and by others as a centrist. In 2012, Boudin penned a decision holding the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law defining marriage as an opposite-sex union, unconstitutional. Boudin was widely regarded as having a brilliant legal mind.

Personal life and death

Boudin was married to Harvard Law professor Martha Field. They separated in later years but did not divorce. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2010. His nephew, Chesa Boudin, is an attorney who has served as district attorney of San Francisco.

Boudin died from complications of dementia and Parkinson's disease at a care facility in Boston on March 24, 2025, at the age of 85.

See also

• List of Jewish American jurists
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 9)
• Louis B. Boudin
• Leonard Boudin
• Kathy Boudin
• Chesa Boudin

External links

• Template:FJC Bio
• Template:Ballotpedia
• Template:C-SPAN