Sandra Lea Lynch
2022 - Present
2
Sandra Lea Lynch is a federal judge on senior status with the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. She joined the court in 1995 after being nominated by President Bill Clinton (D).[1] On March 1, 2022, Lynch announced that she would assume senior status upon the confirmation of her successor. She assumed senior status on December 31, 2022.[2][3]
Biography
Early life and education
A native of Oak Park, Illinois, Lynch received her undergraduate degree from Wellesley College in 1968 and her J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1971.[1]
Professional career
- 1995-present: United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit
- 2022-present: Senior judge
- 1995-2022: Judge
- 2008-2015: Chief judge
- 1978-1995: Private practice, Boston, Mass.
- 1990-1992: Special counsel, Judicial Conduct Commission of Massachusetts
- 1974-1978: General counsel, Massachusetts Department of Education
- 1973-1974: Assistant attorney general, Massachusetts
- 1971-1973: Law clerk, Hon. Raymond Pettine, United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island[1]
Judicial career
First Circuit Court of Appeals
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| Nominee Information |
| Name: Sandra L. Lynch |
| Court: United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit |
| Progress |
| Confirmed 179 days after nomination. |
 Nominated: September 19, 1994
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| ABA Rating: Unanimously Well Qualified
|
| Questionnaire: |
| Hearing: February 8, 1995
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| QFRs: (Hover over QFRs to read more) |
| Reported: February 23, 1995
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| Confirmed: March 17, 1995
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| Vote: Voice vote
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 Returned: November 14, 1994
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Lynch was first nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit by President Bill Clinton on September 19, 1994, to fill a seat vacated by Stephen Breyer upon his elevation to the Supreme Court of the United States. The American Bar Association rated Lynch Unanimously Well Qualified for the nomination.[4][5] Under provisions of Rule XXXI, paragraph six of the standing rules of the Senate, Lynch's nomination was returned to the president on November 14, 1994.[6] President Clinton resubmitted Lynch's nomination on January 11, 1995. Hearings on Lynch's nomination were held before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on February 8, 1995, and her nomination was reported by U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) on February 23, 1995. Lynch was confirmed on a voice vote of the U.S. Senate on March 17, 1995, and she received her commission the same day. From 2008 to 2015, Lynch served as chief judge of the First Circuit.[1][7]
Noteworthy cases
First Circuit upholds sentence for crime of violence under ACCA (2017)
On October 16, 2017, a three-judge panel upheld a federal district court’s decision to dismiss Jeffrey Scott Hunter’s appeal. Judge Sandra Lea Lynch issued the opinion of the panel. Hunter appealed a five-year mandatory prison sentence for the use of a firearm during a statutorily-defined crime of violence under the force clause of the Armed Criminal Career Act (ACCA). In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Johnson v. United States that the definition of crimes of violence under ACCA’s residual clause was unconstitutionally vague. Hunter alleged the definitions under the same law were similarly vague, but the circuit panel disagreed. The case could be headed for Supreme Court review, as the Supreme Court heard two cases addressing vagueness challenges to statutory definitions for crimes of violence during its October 2016 term: Sessions v. Dimaya and Beckles v. United States.[8]
SCOTUS upholds First Circuit ruling on federal firearms law (2016)
On June 27, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of a divided three-judge panel of the First Circuit. Judge Sandra Lea Lynch issued the majority opinion of the panel in the case.
On two occasions, Stephen Voisine was convicted of assaulting a woman under a Maine law that established a person was guilty of assault if that person “knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly causes bodily injury or offensive physical contact to another person.” In 2009, Voisine was arrested on a federal misdemeanor charge of killing a bald eagle. During the investigation of the federal charge, police recovered a firearm from Voisine. Based on his earlier misdemeanor assault convictions, police arrested and charged Voisine with violating a federal law making it a federal crime for an individual convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence to possess a firearm. Voisine moved to dismiss the charge, arguing that the Maine misdemeanor domestic violence assault statute did not constitute misdemeanor domestic violence under the federal statute because the requirement to show recklessness was sufficient for conviction under the Maine statute, but not under the federal law. A federal district court denied Voisine's motion. Writing for a divided 2-1 circuit panel majority, Judge Sandra Lea Lynch upheld the lower court's denial. Writing for a six-justice U.S. Supreme Court majority, Justice Elena Kagan affirmed the circuit court's decision.[9][10][11]
See also
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- Biography from the Federal Judicial Center
- Judge Lynch's biography from the First Circuit website
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Federal Judicial Center, "Lynch, Sandra Lea," accessed March 2, 2022
- ↑ Sandra Lynch, U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT, "Letter to the president," March 1, 2022
- ↑ Reuters, "1st Circuit's first woman judge to retire from active service," March 1, 2022
- ↑ American Bar Association, "Ratings of Article III judicial nominees, 103rd Congress," accessed December 21, 2016
- ↑ American Bar Association, "Ratings of Article III judicial nominees, 104th Congress," accessed December 21, 2016
- ↑ United States Congress, "PN 1771 — Sandra L. Lynch — The Judiciary," accessed December 21, 2016
- ↑ United States Congress, "PN 158 — Sandra L. Lynch — The Judiciary," accessed December 21, 2016
- ↑ U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Jeffrey Scott Hunter v. United States of America, October 16, 2017
- ↑ U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, United States of America v. Stephen L. Voisine; William E. Armstrong III, decided January 30, 2015
- ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, Voisine et al. v. United States, June 27, 2016
- ↑ Oyez.org, "Voisine v. United States," accessed October 10, 2017
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Stephen Breyer |
United States Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit 1995-2022 |
Succeeded by - |
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 |
Adams • Ambrose • Barnes • Brinkema • Bucklew • Chasanow • Coffman • Daughtrey • Ferguson • Ginsburg • Hagen • Jackson • Lancaster • Leval • Lindsay • Messitte • Michael • Piersol • Saris • Schwartz • Seybert • Shanahan • Shaw • Stearns • Trager • Vazquez • Wilken • Wilson | ||
| 1994 |
Baer • Barkett • Batts • Beaty • Benavides • Bennett • Berrigan • Biery • Block • Borman • Breyer • Briones • Bryson • Bucklo • Burgess • Burrage • Cabranes • Calabresi • Carr • Casellas • Castillo • Chatigny • Chin • Cindrich • Coar • Collins • Cooper • Cote • Currie • Davis • Dominguez • Downes • Duval • Friedman • Furgeson • Garcia • Gertner • Gettleman • Gillmor • Gilmore • Gleeson • Haggerty • Hamilton • Hannah • Hawkins • Henry • Holmes • Hood • Hull • Hurley • Jack • Jones • Jones • Kaplan • Katz • Kern • Kessler • Koeltl • Lisi • Manning • McKee • McLaughlin • Melancon • Miles-LaGrange • Moore • Motz • Murphy • O'Malley • O'Meara • Oliver • Paez • B. Parker • F. Parker • R. Parker • Perry • Ponsor • Pooler • Porteous • Rendell • Riley • Robertson • Rogers • Ross • Russell • Sands • Sarokin • Scheindlin • Silver • Squatrito • Stewart • Sullivan • Tatel • Thompson • Timlin • Urbina • Vanaskie • Vance • Walls • Wells • Williams | ||
| 1995 |
Arterton • Atlas • Black • Blake • Briscoe • Tena Campbell • Todd Campbell • Chesney • Cole • Collier • Daniel • Davis • Dennis • Dlott • Donald • Duffy • Economus • Evans • Fallon • Folsom • Gaughan • Goodwin • Heartfield • Hunt • Illston • Jones • King • Kornmann • Lawson • Lenard • Lucero • Lynch • McKinley • Moody • Moore • Moskowitz • Murphy • Murtha • Nugent • O'Toole • Orlofsky • Pogue • Sessions • C. Smith • O. Smith • Stein • Thornburg • Tunheim • Wallach • Wardlaw • Webber • Whaley • Winmill • Wood | ||
| 1996 |
Broadwater • Clevert • Fenner • Gershon • Gottschall • Greenaway • Hinkle • Jones • Kahn • Laughrey • Lemmon • Marten • Miller • Molloy • Montgomery • Pregerson • Rakoff • Sargus • Tashima • Thomas • Zapata | ||
| 1997 |
Adelman • Bataillon • Breyer • Caputo • Casey • Chambers • Clay • Damrell • Droney • Friedman • Gajarsa • Garland • Gilman • Gold • Gwin • Hall • Hayden • Hull • Ishii • Jenkins • Kauffman • Kennedy • Kimball • Kollar-Kotelly • Lazzara • Marbley • Marcus • Middlebrooks • Miller • Moon • Pratt • Rendell • Sippel • Siragusa • Snyder • Thrash | ||
| 1998 |
Aiken • Barbier • Barzilay • Berman • Buttram • Carter • Collins • Dawson • Dimitrouleas • Fletcher • Fogel • Frank • Graber • Hellerstein • Herndon • James • Johnson • Kane • Kelly • G. King • R. King • Lasnik • Lee • Lemelle • Lindsay • Lipez • Manella • Matz • McCuskey • McKeown • McMahon • Mickle • Mollway • Mordue • Moreno • Morrow • Munley • Murphy • Pallmeyer • Pauley • Polster • Pooler • Rawlinson • Ridgway • R. Roberts • V. Roberts • Sack • Scott • Seitz • Seymour • Shea • Silverman • Sleet • Sotomayor • Steeh • Story • Straub • Tagle • Tarnow • Trauger • Traxler • Tyson • Wardlaw • Whelan • Young | ||
| 1999 |
Alsup • Barry • Brown • Buchwald • Cooper • Eaton • Ellison • Feess • Fisher • Gould • Guzman • Haynes • Hibbler • Hochberg • Hurd • Huvelle • Jordan • Katzmann • Kennelly • Linn • Lorenz • Lynn • Marrero • Murguia • Pannell • Pechman • Pepper • Phillips • Schreier • Stewart • Underhill • Ward • Williams • Wilson | ||
| 2000 |
Ambro • Antoon • Battani • Berzon • Bolton • Brady • Bye • Cavanaugh • Daniels • Darrah • Dawson • Dyk • Fuentes • Garaufis • Garcia-Gregory • Hamilton • Huck • Hunt • Lawson • Lefkow • Lynch • Martin • McLaughlin • Moody • Murguia • Paez • Pisano • Presnell • Rawlinson • Reagan • Schiller • Singal • Steele • Surrick • Swain • Tallman • Teilborg • Tucker • Whittemore | ||
