Ellen Judith Huvelle ( ''née'' Segal; born June 3, 1948) is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the District of Columbia The United States District Court for the District of Columbia (in case citations, D.D.C.) is a federal district court in the District of Columbia. It also occasionally handles (jointly with the United States District Court for the District ...

. She has overseen several significant cases. In a case decided in May 2001, Huvelle "upheld federal regulations that restrict the sale of consumers' names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and phone numbers." Later that year, Huvelle heard requests by family members of

Vince Foster Vincent Walker Foster Jr. (January 15, 1945 – July 20, 1993) was an American attorney who served as deputy White House counsel during the first six months of the Clinton administration. Foster had been a partner at Rose Law Firm in Lit ...

seeking access to pictures of his body taken after his death. In November 2005, she accepted the

guilty plea In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in respons ...

in the high-profile prosecution of

lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

Michael Scanlon Michael Scanlon (also known as Sean Scanlon) is a former communications director for Rep. Tom DeLay, lobbyist, and public relations executive who has pleaded guilty to corruption charges related to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. He is curre ...

. Huvelle assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on June 3, 2014.

Early life and career

Born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, Huvelle grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and graduated from Newton High School in 1966.

Education

She received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree from Wellesley College in 1970 and a Master in City Planning from the

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSOA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University, and is generally considered to be one of the best architecture schools in the United States. The School awards the degrees of Master of Arc ...

in 1972. With her father and brother both lawyers, Huvelle focused on the law and in 1975 earned a Juris Doctor from the

Boston College Law School Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. With approximately 800 stud ...

Early career

In 1973 she was a law clerk for the appellate division of the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office in Massachusetts. In 1974 she was a public defender for the Committee for Public Counsel Services in

Legal career

Following law school, she served as law clerk to Chief Justice Edward F. Hennessey of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1975 to 1976. From 1976 until 1984, Huvelle was an associate at the firm of Williams & Connolly in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and in 1984, she became the first female partner at that firm, where she remained until 1990. In 1983, Huvelle was one of three attorneys who drafted an

amicus brief An ''amicus curiae'' (; ) is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case, but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. The decision on ...

on behalf of the

Motion Picture Association of America The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distrib ...

in the

landmark case Landmark court decisions, in present-day common law legal systems, establish precedents that determine a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially affect the interpretation of existing law. "Leading case" is commonly ...

of ''

Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. ''Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.'', 464 U.S. 417 (1984), also known as the “Betamax case”, is a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the making of individual copies of complete television s ...

''. As a partner at Williams & Connolly, Huvelle represented several notable clients including hotel magnate

Leona Helmsley Leona Roberts Helmsley (July 4, 1920 – August 20, 2007) was an American businesswoman. Her flamboyant personality and reputation for tyrannical behavior earned her the nickname Queen of Mean. After allegations of non-payment were made by co ...

and fight promoter

Don King Donald King (born August 20, 1931) is an American boxing promoter, known for his involvement in several historic boxing matchups. He has been a controversial figure, partly due to a manslaughter conviction and civil cases against him, as well a ...

Judicial service

District of Columbia superior court service

Huvelle was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as an Associate Judge of the

District of Columbia Superior Court The Superior Court of the District of Columbia, commonly referred to as DC Superior Court, is the trial court for the District of Columbia, in the United States. It hears cases involving criminal and civil law, as well as family court, landl ...

in September 1990 and served in the Civil, Criminal and Family Divisions until her appointment to the federal bench. While serving on that court, she was a lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law from 1997 to 1999.

Federal judicial service

On March 25, 1999, Huvelle was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

to a seat on the

, vacated by John Garrett Penn. She was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on October 15, 1999, receiving her commission on October 26, 1999. Senator

Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph Leahy (; born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who is the senior United States senator from Vermont and serves as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, ...

cited the long delays in Huvelle's confirmation as United States District Judge as a troubling example of problems in the confirmation process. She took

on June 3, 2014. Huvelle has been a Fellow 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 aca ...

, a member of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court, and has taught trial practice at Harvard Law School's Trial Advocacy Workshop and at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Notable opinions

Privacy and "opt out"

According to ''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

'' Huvelle played a key role in ensuring that ordinary consumers can opt out of information collection on their personal information.

''A.C.L.U. v. U.S. Dept. of Justice''

Huvelle ruled on ''

American Civil Liberties Union 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 ...

, et al v. U.S. Dept. of Justice'', 265 F.Supp.2d 20.

''Murat Kurnaz v. George W. Bush''

Huvelle made a ruling on

Guantanamo captive The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...

Murat Kurnaz Murat Kurnaz (born 19 March 1982) is a Turkish citizen and legal resident of Germany who was held in extrajudicial detention by the United States at its military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan and in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp at Guantana ...

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

petition in '' Murat Kurnaz v. George W. Bush''.

XM Radio

In the summer of 2006 Huvelle amalgamated related cases into a class action against ''In re XM Satellite Radio Holdings Securities Litigation'', C.A. No. 06-0802.

Former Interior Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles

Huvelle ruled on the sentencing of former Deputy Secretary of the Interior

J. Steven Griles James Steven "Steve" Griles (born December 13, 1947) was an American coal industry lobbyist and the United States Deputy Secretary of the Interior during the George W. Bush administration from July 12, 2001, until his resignation on December 7, ...

Drone strikes

In February 2016, Huvelle found that the

next friend In common law, a next friend (Law French ''prochein ami'') is a person who represents another person who is under age, or, because of disability or otherwise, is unable to maintain a suit on his or her own behalf and who does not have a legal gu ...

of Yemenis killed in a U.S.

drone strike Drone warfare is a form of aerial warfare using unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) or weaponized commercial unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). The United States, United Kingdom, Israel, China, South Korea, Iran, Italy, France, India, Pakist ...

could not sue under the

Torture Victims Protection Act The Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 (TVPA; ) is a statute that allows for the filing of civil suits in the United States against individuals who, acting in an official capacity for any foreign nation, committed torture and/or extrajudicial ...

nor the

Alien Tort Statute The Alien Tort Statute ( codified in 1948 as ; ATS), also called the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), is a section in the United States Code that gives federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits filed by foreign nationals for torts committed in vi ...

because the attack raised a

political question In United States constitutional law, the political question doctrine holds that a constitutional dispute that requires knowledge of a non-legal character or the use of techniques not suitable for a court or explicitly assigned by the Constitution ...

Personal life

Huvelle is married to labor lawyer Jeffrey Huvelle.

References

External links

* *
Nominations for Superior Court of the District of Columbia : hearing before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred First Congress, second session, on nominations of Mary Ellen Abrecht, Kaye K. Christian, Frederick D. Dorsey, Ellen Segal Huvelle, Jose M. Lopez, Joan Z. McAvoy, Gregory E. Mize, Patricia Q. Wynn, John Henry Bayly, Jr., Linda Turner Hamilton, and Stephen G. Milliken, to be associate judges ... 4.G 74/9:S.hrg.101-1067 (1990)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huvelle, Ellen Segal 1948 births Living people Wellesley College alumni Yale University alumni Boston College Law School alumni Harvard Law School faculty University of Virginia School of Law faculty Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton Judges presiding over Guantanamo habeas petitions Lawyers from Boston Judges of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia American women legal scholars American legal scholars 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges Public defenders