Brian Edward Murphy (born 1979) is an American lawyer who is serving as a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

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 United States district court, federal district court whose Jurisdiction (area), territorial jurisdiction is the Commonwealth (U.S. state), C ...

Early life and education

Murphy was born in

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a planned community in Howard County, Maryland, United States, consisting of 10 self-contained villages. With a population of 104,681 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the second-most-populous community in Maryland ...

. He earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...

in 2002 and a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

in 2006. While in law school, he attended as a

James Kent James Kent may refer to: *James Kent (jurist) (1763–1847), American jurist and legal scholar * James Kent (composer) (1700–1776), English composer *James Kent, better known as Perturbator, French electronic/synthwave musician *James Tyler Kent ...

Scholar, a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and was

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of the ''

Columbia Human Rights Law Review The ''Columbia Human Rights Law Review'' is a law review established in 1967 focusing on human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and ...

''.

Career

From 2006 to 2009, Murphy was a

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Belgium, Hungary and Si ...

at the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services. From 2009 to 2011, he was an

associate attorney An associate attorney is a lawyer and an employee of a law firm who does not hold an ownership interest as a partner. Types Practicing attorney An associate may be a junior or senior attorney, but normally does not hold an ownership interest in ...

at Todd and Weld LLP. From 2011 to 2024, he was the partner at Murphy & Rudolf LLP; from 2012 to 2016 the firm was known as Murphy & Vander Salm LLP. From 2015 to 2019, Murphy also served as a supervising attorney for the Worcester County Bar Advocates.

Federal judicial service

On March 20, 2024, President

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

announced his intent to nominate Murphy to serve as a

of the

. Murphy was recommended to the White House by Senators

Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann Warren (née Herring; born June 22, 1949) is an American politician and former law professor who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of Massachusetts, serving since 2013. A mem ...

and

Ed Markey Edward John Markey (born July 11, 1946) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Massachusetts, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of ...

. On March 21, 2024, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Murphy to the seat being vacated by Judge Patti B. Saris, who announced her intent to assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor. On April 17, 2024, a hearing on his nomination was held before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally known as the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the United States Departm ...

. On May 9, 2024, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–10

party-line vote A party-line vote in a deliberative assembly (such as a constituent assembly, parliament, or legislature) is a vote in which a substantial majority of members of a political party vote the same way (usually in opposition to the other political ...

. On November 20, 2024, the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

invoked

cloture Cloture (, ), closure or, informally, a guillotine, is a motion or process in parliamentary procedure aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. is ...

on his nomination by a 50–49 vote. On December 2, 2024, his nomination was confirmed by a 47–45 vote. He received his judicial commission on December 6, 2024.

Notable cases

On March 28, 2025, during the proceedings for '' D.V.D. v. Department of Homeland Security'', Murphy temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security from deporting people to "third countries", or countries other than the one they came from. In April, he said that if the United States were to decide to deport anyone to a third country, it should first give the person a 15-day window to contest that decision. On May 20, 2025, the Trump administration was flying eight criminal migrants out of the United States to be deported to South Sudan, with less than a day's notice, when one of the migrant's lawyers requested for Murphy to intervene. Murphy held hearings, trying to find out what was happening, while the Trump administration initially declined to inform him of the plane's location as it was "classified". The Trump administration changed its plan, instead detaining the migrants in

Camp Lemonnier Camp Lemonnier is a United States Naval Expeditionary Base, situated next to Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti City, and home to the Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). ...

, a U.S. military base in

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

. On May 21, Murphy ruled that the Trump administration violated his court order with their "hurried and confused" notice to the migrants before attempting to deport them to South Sudan, which the American government had discouraged travel to due to "crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict". Murphy then ruled with possible courses of actions to the Trump administration to take, including detaining the migrants in the United States, or detaining them outside of the United States while arranging interviews for them regarding deportation. The Trump administration continued to detain the migrants in Djibouti, while objecting to Murphy's ruling, to which Murphy responded that the Trump administration had "asked" for this "result", and was "manufacturing the very chaos they decry", with Murphy saying he acquiesced to the Trump administration's "suggestion that they be allowed to keep the igrantsout of the

nited States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

and finish their process abroad". On July 3, 2025, the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

in '' Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D.'', granted the government's request for an emergency stay of the court orders pending the Circuit Court's and its own review by a vote of 7-2. The court added a rare note at the end of its ruling. If the Government wishes to seek additional relief in aid of the execution of our mandate, it may do so through mandamus. In her dissent, Justice

Sonia Sotomayor Sonia Maria Sotomayor (, ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since ...

wrote:

This Court now intervenes to grant the Government emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied. I cannot join so gross an abuse of the Court’s equitable discretion...each time this Court rewards noncompliance with discretionary relief, it further erodes respect for courts and for the rule of law.

References

External links

*
D.V.D. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (1:25-cv-10676)
- assigned to Brian E. Murphy {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Brian E. 1979 births Living people 21st-century American lawyers College of the Holy Cross alumni Columbia Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Massachusetts lawyers People from Columbia, Maryland Public defenders United States district court judges appointed by Joe Biden