Christopher Fitzgerald Droney (born June 22, 1954) is an American lawyer who formerly served as a

United States circuit judge In the United States, a federal judge is a judge who serves on a court established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. Often called "Article III judges", federal judges include the chief justice and associate justices of the U.S. Su ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory covers the states of Connecticut, New York (state), New York, and Vermont, and it has ap ...

and judge of the

United States District Court for the District of Connecticut The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (in case citations, D. Conn.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Connecticut. The court has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. Appeal ...

Early life and education

Droney was born in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

. He received 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 ...

, ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'', 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 1976 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 the

University of Connecticut School of Law The University of Connecticut School of Law (UConn Law) is the law school associated with the University of Connecticut and located in Hartford, Connecticut. It is the only public law school in Connecticut and one of only four in New England. As ...

in 1979. While in law school, Droney was an editor of the ''

Connecticut Law Review The ''Connecticut Law Review'' is a quarterly law review produced by students of the University of Connecticut School of Law. It publishes more than 1,000 pages of critical legal discussion each year and is managed entirely by a student board of e ...

''. Droney was in private practice in Hartford from 1979 to 1993, and was also deputy mayor of

West Hartford West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford. The town is part of the Capitol Planning Region. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 census. The town's popular downtown area is colloquiall ...

from 1983 to 1985, and then Mayor of West Hartford from 1985 to 1989. He was the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

for the District of Connecticut from 1993 to 1997.

Federal judicial service

On June 5, 1997, Droney was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

to a seat on the

vacated by

Alan Harris Nevas Alan Harris Nevas (March 27, 1928 – April 19, 2025) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. Education and career Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Nevas received an Artium Baccalaur ...

. Droney was confirmed unanimously by 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 ...

on September 11, 1997, and received his commission on September 18, 1997. His service as a district judge was terminated on December 1, 2011 when he was elevated to the court of appeals. On May 4, 2011, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

nominated Droney to serve on the

to replace Judge

Guido Calabresi Guido Calabresi (born October 18, 1932) is an Italian-born American jurist who serves as a senior circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a former Dean of Yale Law School, where he has been a professor s ...

, who assumed senior status in 2009. On November 28, 2011, the United States Senate confirmed his nomination by a 88–0 vote. He received his commission on December 1, 2011. On April 15, 2019, Droney announced that he would assume senior status, beginning June 30, 2019. In August 2019, Droney announced that he would retire from the bench in January 2020 and resume private practice. He retired on January 2, 2020 and rejoined a law firm,

Day Pitney Day Pitney LLP is an American law firm with more than 300 attorneys spread across thirteen offices in six states and the District of Columbia. History Predecessors Pitney & Hardin was founded in Newark, New Jersey in 1902, by attorneys John R ...

. On March 13, 2023, he left Day Pitney to create his own law firm, Droney Law in

. In 2021, Droney was appointed by the National Football League Management Council and the NFL Players Association as the system arbitrator for the league.

Notable cases

As a United States District Judge, Droney presided over such matters as a multi-district class action involving RICO and fraud charges in the national food service industry, the first sex trafficking criminal jury trial under the then-new federal child sex trafficking statutes, and the return of the famous television puppet Howdy Doody from private parties to the museum at the Detroit Institute of Arts. While on the Court of Appeals, Droney authored the Ragbir opinion, which held that immigrants could not be deported in retaliation for their protected

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

speech, ''Littlejohn v. City of New York'', which eased the pleading standard for federal employment discrimination claims, and Force v. Facebook, 934 F. 3d 53 (2d Cir. 2019), which recognized immunity of internet computer service providers under section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for information posted by third parties. He also provided the deciding vote for the Second Circuit in ''

Windsor v. United States ''United States v. Windsor'', 570 U.S. 744 (2013), is a landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case concerning same-sex marriage. The Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal recognition ...

'', which held that the

Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "nor shall any State... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal pr ...

guaranteed the right of same-sex couples to marry, which was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. He also dissented from the denial of ''

en banc In law, an ''en banc'' (; alternatively ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank''; ) session is when all the judges of a court sit to hear a case, not just one judge or a smaller panel of judges. For courts like the United States Courts of Appeal ...

'' in the Microsoft email case, arguing that federal prosecutors could obtain emails of Microsoft customers that were stored abroad. Droney also joined in the ''

Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump ''Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump'', 928 F.3d 226 (2nd Cir. 2019), was a Second Circuit Court of Appeals case on the use of social media as a Forum (legal), public forum. The plaintiffs, Philip N. Cohen, Eugene Gu, Holly Figueroa O'Rei ...

'' opinion, which held that the President's Twitter account was a First Amendment-protected public forum and the President could not block unfavorable comments from that account, the panel opinion in ''

CREW v. Trump ''Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington v. Trump'' was a case brought before the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The plaintiffs, watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washingto ...

'', which held that the suit could proceed against President Trump for violation of the Constitution's emoluments clause for his profits from his hotels and restaurants, as well as the Vance v. Trump opinion, which held that the President's personal tax returns were not immune from production in response to a state grand jury subpoena. He also joined the opinion which required the disclosure of the

Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( , ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career as a teacher at the Dalton School, despite lacking a col ...

court documents.Brown v. Maxwell, 929 F.3d 41 (2d Cir. 2019).

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Droney, Christopher Fitzgerald 1954 births Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut Living people Lawyers from Hartford, Connecticut United States attorneys for the District of Connecticut United States court of appeals judges appointed by Barack Obama United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Connecticut School of Law alumni 20th-century American judges