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Nancy Gertner (born May 22, 1946) is a former United States district judge of the
United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The first court session was hel ...
. She assumed senior status on May 22, 2011, and retired outright from the federal bench on September 1, 2011.Harvard Law School
"http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2011/02/4_practice.html"
accessed May 4, 2011
She is now a
professor of practice Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions of teaching and research within a college or university. In the U.S., the word "professor" informally refers collectively to the academic ranks of assistant professor, ass ...
at
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...
.


Early life and education

Gertner was born in New York City, the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Poland and Hungary. Her father, Moishe Gertner, owned a linoleum business; her mother Sadie Gertner was a housewife. Her family lived in a tenement until she was seven years old, when they moved to Flushing, New York. At
Flushing High School Flushing High School is a four-year public high school in Flushing, in the New York City borough of Queens. The school is operated by the New York City Department of Education. As of the 2020-21 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1 ...
she was a cheerleader, a member of the staff of her high school's literary magazine, runner-up for homecoming queen, and valedictorian of her class. Gertner received her Bachelor of Arts degree from
Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbi ...
of Columbia University in 1967 and a Master of Arts and a Juris Doctor from Yale University and Yale Law School, respectively, in 1971. While attending Yale, Gertner became friends with Hillary Rodham and met Bill Clinton.


Career

Gertner began her legal career in 1971 as a
law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...
for Judge
Luther Swygert Luther Merritt Swygert (February 5, 1905 – March 16, 1988) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and previously was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for ...
of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Between 1972 and 1994, she practiced law in and around the Greater Boston area with
Harvey Silverglate Harvey Allen Silverglate (born May 10, 1942) is an attorney, journalist, writer, and co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). Silverglate was a member of the board of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Civi ...
and Thomas Shapiro at Silverglate, Shapiro & Gertner, during which she also taught at
Boston University School of Law Boston University School of Law (Boston Law or BU Law) is the law school of Boston University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top law schools in the United States and considered an eli ...
and was a visiting professor at
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...
. During this period, Gertner was notable for being a supporter of liberalism and
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
ideals, wearing bright red clothes in court, carrying her legal briefs in shopping bags and keeping files on lawyers and judges she felt to be sexist.


Federal judicial service

On October 27, 1993, on the recommendations of Senators
Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
and
John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he p ...
, Gertner was nominated to the
United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts (in case citations, D. Mass.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The first court session was hel ...
by President Bill Clinton to a seat vacated by A. David Mazzone. Gertner was confirmed by the Senate on February 10, 1994, and received her commission on February 14, 1994. Gertner assumed senior status on May 22, 2011, and retired on September 1, 2011.


Later career

After retiring from the bench, Gertner was appointed a Professor of Practice at
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...
. She was named a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States by President Joe Biden on April 9, 2021.


Notable cases

Gertner ruled in ''U.S. v. Hines'', 55 F.Supp. 2d 62 (D.Mass. 1999), a case regarding the admissibility of expert testimony, that (i) a handwriting expert could testify to similarities between handwriting samples but not state an opinion about whether the same person wrote both notes, and (ii) expert witness testimony regarding the reliability of eyewitness testimony, including problems of cross-racial identification, was admissible. The case interpreted new admissibility standards for expert testimony set forth by the Supreme Court in ''Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals'', 509 U.S. 579 (1993) and ''Kumho Tire Co. v. Carmichael'', 526 U.S. 137 (1999). On July 26, 2007, she ordered the federal government to pay a record $101.7 million for withholding evidence that could have exculpated four men wrongfully convicted of murder. The men had been falsely accused by mob hitman Joseph "The Animal" Barboza, with the help of corrupt FBI agent
H. Paul Rico Harold Paul Rico (April 29, 1925 – January 16, 2004) was an FBI agent, indicted for murder in 2003. He was accused of the 1968 framing of four men for murder but died before his trial would have taken place. Early life Rico was born in 1925 i ...
. The government appealed the award, which was upheld in 2009 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Judge Gertner presided over '' Sony BMG v. Tenenbaum'', a
civil trial In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal, ...
in which the Recording Industry Association of America accused Joel Tenenbaum, a Massachusetts college student, of illegally downloading and sharing files, thus violating U.S. copyright law. In July 2009, a jury awarded $675,000 to the music companies, but Judge Gertner later reduced the award to $67,500, stating that arbitrarily high
statutory damages Statutory damages are a damage award in civil law, in which the amount awarded is stipulated within the statute rather than being calculated based on the degree of harm to the plaintiff. Lawmakers will provide for statutory damages for acts in wh ...
violate due process and are thus unconstitutional. After both parties appealed, the First Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the original damage award of $675,000 and remanded the case to the District Court, ruling that the judge should have avoided the constitutional issue by first considering remittitur. The Supreme Court refused to hear Tenenbaum's appeal arguing against the remand. A new District Court judge then found no cause for remittitur, and held that the statutory damage award was constitutional. Tenenbaum again appealed to the First Circuit, which in June 2013 upheld the award. As a defense attorney, she defended
Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pr ...
student and fugitive Susan Saxe, who stole money to finance the student strikes during the Vietnam era. Gertner describes the Saxe trial as her first big case.
Sean Hannity Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American talk show host, conservative political commentator, and author. He is the host of '' The Sean Hannity Show'', a nationally syndicated talk radio show, and has also hosted a comment ...
, Rush Limbaugh,
Alan Dershowitz Alan Morton Dershowitz ( ; born September 1, 1938) is an American lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appoint ...
and others have asserted that Robert Mueller was responsible for the improper imprisonment of four men when he was a federal prosecutor in Boston during the 1980s. In an opinion piece entitled "Smearing Robert Mueller", Gertner, who presided over the matter, wrote " e record simply doesn't support these assertions".


Personal life

Gertner is to date the only Massachusetts judge to post to a personal blog. Though this has resulted in some criticism, Gertner maintains that judges are often too silent on issues they should publicly address. Gertner published her memoirs, ''In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate'', in 2011. The book focuses on the period during which she worked as a
criminal defense In the field of criminal law, there are a variety of conditions that will tend to negate elements of a crime (particularly the ''intent'' element), known as defenses. The label may be apt in jurisdictions where the ''accused'' may be assigned some ...
and civil rights lawyer before joining the Federal bench in 1994. Gertner is married to John Reinstein, former Legal Director for the Massachusetts
ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
. In October 2015, Gertner became the subject of media attention in the Boston area when an escaped
cockatoo A cockatoo is any of the 21 parrot species belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up the ord ...
did considerable damage to her Brookline residence, a historic Victorian home which also happened to be the birthplace of Robert F. Kennedy. After eluding capture for several months, the bird was caught on October 22.


Awards

*2008 Thurgood Marshall Award of the
American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acade ...
, recognizing Gertner's contributions to advancing human rights and
civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
. *2014 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award of the American Bar Association, recognizing Gertner's advocacy, mentoring and achievements in the legal field.


See also

*
List of Jewish American jurists This is a list of notable Jewish American jurists. For other famous Jewish Americans, see Lists of American Jews. Supreme Court of the United States Federal judges Appellate judges * Robert E. Bacharach, Judge of the United States Court ...


References


Sources

* Nancy Gertner, ''In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate'' (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011) *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gertner, Nancy 1946 births 20th-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges American civil rights lawyers American women lawyers Barnard College alumni Flushing High School alumni Harvard Law School faculty International Center for Research on Women Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Lawyers from New York City Living people People from Flushing, Queens United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton Women legal scholars Yale Law School alumni