{{Short description|American federal judge (1939–2025)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Michael Boudin | honorific_suffix = | image = Michael Boudin Judicial Portrait (cropped).webp | alt = | caption = Boudin in 2011 | office = Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit | term_start = June 1, 2013 | term_end = December 15, 2021 | office1 = Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit | term_start1 = June 15, 2001 | term_end1 = June 16, 2008 | predecessor1 = Juan R. Torruella | successor1 = Sandra Lynch | office2 = Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit | term_start2 = May 26, 1992 | term_end2 = June 1, 2013 | nominator2 = | appointer2 = George H. W. Bush | predecessor2 = Levin H. Campbell | successor2 = David J. Barron | office3 = Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia | term_start3 = August 7, 1990 | term_end3 = January 31, 1992 | nominator3 = | appointer3 = George H. W. Bush | predecessor3 = John H. Pratt | successor3 = Gladys Kessler | pronunciation = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1939|11|29}} | birth_place = New York City, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|03|24|1939|11|29}} | death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. | spouse = Martha Field (separated) | partner = | children = 3 | mother = | father = Leonard Boudin | relatives = {{plainlist| * Louis B. Boudin (grand-uncle) * I. F. Stone (uncle) * Kathy Boudin (sister) * Chesa Boudin (nephew) }} | education = {{no wrap|Harvard University (BA, LLB)}} | signature_alt = | website = <!--Embedded templates / Footnotes--> | footnotes = }}
'''Michael Boudin''' ({{IPAc-en|b|uː|ˈ|d|iː|n}} {{respell|boo|DEEN|'}}; 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. Prior to 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 into a Jewish family. He was the son of poet Jean (Roisman) Boudin<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osNtAAAAMAAJ&q=%22the+poet+Jean+(Roisman)+Boudin%22 | title=Jewish Currents | year=2007 }}</ref> and civil liberties attorney Leonard Boudin and the older brother of Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin.<ref name = Langer>{{cite news|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2025/03/24/michael-boudin-federal-judge-dead/|title = Michael Boudin, federal judge who forged his own path, dies at 85|last = Langer|first = Emily|date = March 24, 2025|accessdate = March 24, 2025|newspaper = The Washington Post|url-access = limited}}</ref><ref name="unusual">{{cite news|last=Margolick|first=David|title=An Unusual Court Nominee, N.Y. Times (April 24, 1992)|work=The New York Times |date=April 24, 1992 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/24/news/an-unusual-court-nominee-judging-by-his-family.html}}</ref><ref name = Nossiter>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/25/obituaries/michael-boudin-dead.html|title = Michael Boudin, Independent Judge From a Family on the Left, Dies at 85|last = Nossiter|first = Adam|date = March 25, 2025|accessdate = March 25, 2025|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}}</ref> Michael Boudin 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 became the president of the ''Harvard Law Review''.<ref name = Nossiter/> He graduated first in his class with a Bachelor of Laws in 1964.<ref name = Langer/>
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 is noted as being "like a son to the judge"; he was later instrumental in the endowment of the Henry J. Friendly Medal, awarded by the American Law Institute.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Pierre N. Leval |title=Remarks on Henry Friendly on the award of the Henry Friendly Medal to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor |url=https://www.ali.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/awards-friendly-remarks.pdf |website=ALI.org |publisher=American Law Institute |access-date=30 January 2026 |page=10 |format=PDF |date=October 20, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> He subsequently clerked for Justice John Marshall Harlan II of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1965 to 1966.<ref name="fjc.gov">{{cite web|url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/boudin-michael|title=Boudin, Michael - Federal Judicial Center|website=www.fjc.gov}}</ref>
==Legal career== From 1966 to 1987, Boudin practiced law at Covington & Burling, a Washington, D.C., law firm.<ref name = Nossiter /> 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.<ref name="fjc.gov"/>
==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.<ref name="fjc.gov"/>
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.<ref name="fjc.gov"/> Boudin served as Chief Judge of the First Circuit from 2001 to 2008. He assumed senior status on June 1, 2013.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/files/press/SenStatuspressrelease.pdf|title=Senior Status for Judge Michael Boudin|url-status=dead|archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20140608015409/http%3A//media.ca1.uscourts.gov/files/press/SenStatuspressrelease.pdf|archive-date=June 8, 2014}}</ref><ref name="fjc.gov"/> He retired from service on December 15, 2021.<ref name="fjc.gov"/>
''The New York Times'' stated that Boudin was "not easy to pigeonhole ideologically".<ref name = Nossiter/> He was described by some as a conservative<ref name="unusual" /><ref name = Langer /> and by others as a centrist.<ref name = Langer /><ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/27/metro/michael-boudin-obituary-federal-judge/|title=Michael Boudin, 'an appellate judge's judge' who wrote key DOMA ruling, dies at 85 |website=BostonGlobe.com|last=Marquard|first=Bryan|date=March 27, 2025}}</ref> In 2012, Boudin penned a decision holding the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law defining marriage as an opposite-sex union, unconstitutional.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/31/court-rules-defense-marriage-unconstitutional|title=Federal court in Boston rules Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional|first=Chris|last=McGreal|date=May 31, 2012|via=The Guardian}}</ref> Boudin was widely regarded as having a brilliant legal mind.<ref name = Langer /><ref name = Nossiter/><ref name="auto2"/>
==Personal life and death== Boudin was married to Harvard Law professor Martha Field.<ref name = Langer/> They separated in later years but did not divorce.<ref name = Nossiter/> He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Michael+Boudin&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=April 21, 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> His nephew, Chesa Boudin, is an attorney who has served as district attorney of San Francisco.<ref name = Langer />
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.<ref name="Langer" />
== 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
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{FJC Bio|218|nid=1378056|name=Michael Boudin<!--(1939–)-->}} * {{Ballotpedia|Michael_Boudin|Michael Boudin}} * {{C-SPAN|36010}} {{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before=John H. Pratt}} {{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia}}|years=1990–1992}} {{s-aft|after=Gladys Kessler}} {{s-bef|before=Levin H. Campbell}} {{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit}}|years=1992–2013}} {{s-aft|after=David J. Barron}} {{s-bef|before=Juan R. Torruella}} {{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit}}|years=2001–2008}} {{s-aft|after=Sandra Lynch}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boudin, Michael}} Category:1939 births Category:2025 deaths Category:20th-century American Jews Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Harvard Law School faculty Category:Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Category:Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Category:United States court of appeals judges appointed by George H. W. Bush Category:United States district court judges appointed by George H. W. Bush Category:People associated with Covington & Burling Michael Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society Category:21st-century American Jews Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease in Massachusetts Category:Deaths from dementia in Massachusetts Category:Little Red School House alumni