Matthew Francis Kennelly (born October 6, 1956) is a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

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 Northern District of Illinois The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (in case citations, N.D. Ill.) is the federal trial court with jurisdiction over the northern counties of Illinois. It is one of the busiest federal trial courts in the Uni ...

Education and career

Kennelly was born in 1956 in

Marion, Indiana Marion is a city in and the county seat of Grant County, Indiana, United States, along the Mississinewa River. The population was 28,310 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is named for Francis Marion, a brigadier general from ...

. He graduated from

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

with 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 in 1978 and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

with 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 ...

in 1981, where he was Executive Director of the

Harvard Legal Aid Bureau The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (HLAB) is the oldest Legal clinic, student-run legal services office in the United States, founded in 1913. The bureau is one of three honors societies at the law school, along with the ''Harvard Law Review'' and the Bo ...

. He served in private practice in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

, from 1981 to 1982. He 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 ...

for Judge

Prentice Marshall Prentice Henry Marshall (August 7, 1926 – May 24, 2004) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Early life and education Born in Oak Park, Illinois, Marshall graduated f ...

of the

from 1982 to 1984. He reentered private practice in 1984 and served in that capacity until his appointment to the federal bench in 1999.

Federal judicial service

On January 26, 1999,

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, ...

nominated Kennelly to be a judge on the

to a seat vacated by Paul Edward Plunkett. 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 April 15, 1999, and received his commission on April 22, 1999. He assumed senior status on October 7, 2021.

Notable rulings

He gained widespread attention when he presided over the case of ACLU v. AT&T in 2006, "a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois on behalf of author

Studs Terkel Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 for ''The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral histor ...

and other activists who said their constitutional rights were violated because of an NSA program of gathering phone company records." :The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities. Kennelly ruled that Terkel and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit did not show that their particular records were seen by the government; therefore, they had no standing in suing the government.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennelly, Matthew 1956 births Living people University of Notre Dame alumni Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton People from Marion, Indiana 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges