Martin Leach-Cross Feldman (January 28, 1934 – January 26, 2022) was 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 Eastern District of Louisiana The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (in case citations, E.D. La.) is a United States federal court based in New Orleans. Appeals from the Eastern District of Louisiana are taken to the United States Court of A ...

Education and career

Feldman, the son of Joseph and Zelma (Bosse) Feldman was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

in the

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. In 1955, 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 ...

degree from

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

and, in 1957, 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

Tulane University Law School The Tulane University School of Law is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States. Campus The law schoo ...

. He was a member of the

Order of the Coif The Order of the Coif () is an American honor society for law school graduates. The Order was founded in 1902 at the University of Illinois College of Law. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of trial lawyers, the serjeants-at-la ...

. He was a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

JAG Corps Reserve Captain from 1957 to 1963. Feldman served as a

law clerk A law clerk, judicial clerk, or judicial assistant is a person, often a lawyer, who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by Legal research, researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial ...

to Judge

John Minor Wisdom John Minor Wisdom (May 17, 1905 – May 15, 1999), one of the "Fifth Circuit Four", and a United States Republican Party, Republican from Louisiana, was a United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appe ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...

from 1957 to 1959. Feldman had a private practice in New Orleans from 1959 to 1983.

Political activism

Feldman was among seventy-one

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

delegates (prior to his conversion to

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

) and alternates to the convention."Louisiana: Martin L. C. Feldman", ''Who's Who in American Politics, 2007-2008'' (Marquis Who's Who:

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, 2007), p. 658 In 1974, Feldman lost a race, 67–32, in the Republican State Central Committee to John H. Cade Jr., for selection as Louisiana

Republican National Committee The Republican National Committee (RNC) is the primary committee of the Republican Party of the United States. Its members are chosen by the state delegations at the national convention every four years. It is responsible for developing and pr ...

man.

Judicial ideology

Feldman considered himself a "traditional" or "old-fashioned" conservative. However, in December 2017, he denounced

Roy Moore Roy Stewart Moore (born February 11, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer, and jurist who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2017, each time being removed from office for judic ...

as a "right-wing nut". He was known to err on the side of limited government. When speaking of the Constitution, Feldman once remarked "It says what it says".

Federal judicial service

Feldman was nominated by President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

on September 9, 1983, to a seat on the

vacated by Judge

Jack Murphy Gordon Jack Murphy Gordon (February 13, 1931 – March 4, 1982) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Education and career Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Gordon received a Bache ...

. He was confirmed 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 October 4, 1983, and received his commission the following day. Biography in Context. In addition to his service on the District Court in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, Feldman served a term on the

FISA Court The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants aga ...

from 2010 to 2017.

''Robicheaux v. Caldwell''

On September 3, 2014, Feldman issued a ruling upholding Louisiana's ban of same-sex marriage. After the

United States 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 U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

ruled Section 3 of the

Defense of Marriage Act The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on September 21, 1996. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limitin ...

, the federal statute that banned the United States federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage, as unconstitutional in ''

United States v. Windsor ''United States v. Windsor'', 570 U.S. 744 (2013), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case concerning same-sex marriage in the United States, same-sex marriage. The Cou ...

'', he was the only district federal judge to uphold a state prohibition against same-sex marriage. Feldman said that the state has a legitimate interest in upholding the state's 2004 amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman that was approved by 78% of voters. Feldman stated, "marriage is a legitimate concern of state law and policy, and that it may be rightly regulated because of what for centuries has been its role." Feldman also equated the recognition of marriage without regard to sex to incest, writing that he was concerned that recognizing marriage without regard to the sex of the members of the couple would lead to a slippery slope that would eventually require courts to recognize polygamy and incest. Lawyers for the plaintiffs immediately announced plans to appeal the ruling. In January 2015, the case was heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, alongside cases from Texas and Mississippi. The decision remained unresolved at the time of the June 26 ''

Obergefell ''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the ...

'' decision. Following the Supreme Court decision, the appeals court remanded the case back down to Feldman and the district court for a reversal of order ruling in favor of the Louisiana plaintiffs.

Deep water drilling

On June 22, 2010, Feldman issued a preliminary

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

blocking a six-month moratorium on deep-water

offshore drilling Offshore drilling is a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled below the seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum that lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. Most commonly, the ter ...

in Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar. White House press secretary

Robert Gibbs Robert Lane Gibbs (born March 29, 1971) is an American communication professional who served as executive vice president and global chief communications officer of McDonald's from 2015 to 2019 and as the 27th White House Press Secretary from 200 ...

indicated that the Obama administration intended to immediately appeal the decision to the

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...

. Feldman's 2008 financial disclosure report indicates that in that year, he owned stock in

Transocean Transocean Ltd. is an American drilling company. It is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor based on revenue and is based in Steinhausen, Switzerland. The company has offices in 20 countries, including Canada, the United States, ...

(worth under $15,000), the company that owned the ''

Deepwater Horizon ''Deepwater Horizon'' was an ultra-deepwater, Dynamic positioning, dynamically positioned, Semi-submersible platform, semi-submersible offshore drilling Oil platform, rig owned by Transocean and operated by the BP company. On 20 April 2010, ...

'' rig, as well as in other oil companies which would be affected by the moratorium. A federal judge is required to consider recusal when he owns shares in one of the parties in the case before him, however none of the companies listed in Feldman's 2008 disclosure were directly involved in the action against Salazar. Feldman's 2009 financial disclosure report indicates that he had financial investments in multiple

BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...

funds, each valued under $15000, much like the prior year. Although Blackrock was said to be the largest holder of BP stock, it's not clear that any of these funds held stock in BP. Feldman held stock in

Exxon-Mobil Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the largest direct successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, the modern company was formed ...

during the hearing on the drilling moratorium and from June 8 to 21, he issued several orders related to the moratorium case. On June 22, at the "opening of the stock market", he reportedly sold his Exxon-Mobil stock. Hours later, he issued his ruling lifting the moratorium. As of the June 9, 2010 amended complaint, Transocean, Black Rock, BP, and Exxon-Mobil were not plaintiffs in the action.

Louisiana bar closures

On August 17, 2020, Feldman ruled that Louisiana's bar closures due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

pandemic are constitutional.

Personal life and death

Feldman died on January 26, 2022, two days before his 88th birthday. He was predeceased by his wife, Melanie ( Pulitzer), who died in 2002. Several years after her death, Feldman converted to Roman Catholicism.US District Court Judge Martin Feldman has died
wdsu.com; accessed January 28, 2022.

References

External links

*
Martin Feldman, 2009 Financial Disclosure Report

Martin Feldman, 2008 Financial Disclosure Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feldman, Martin Leach-Cross 1934 births 2022 deaths 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American judges Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Lawyers from New Orleans Politicians from New Orleans Lawyers from St. Louis Louisiana Republicans Tulane University Law School alumni Military personnel from St. Louis United States Army officers United States district court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan Judges of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court