Rachael Splaine Rollins (born March 3, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician who is 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 Massachusetts. Rollins was formerly Suffolk County District Attorney in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, which includes the municipalities of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament const ...

, Revere, and Winthrop. Rollins was the first woman to hold the office of Suffolk County D.A. and the first woman of color to serve as a Massachusetts D.A. In July 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Rollins to be the

for the District of Massachusetts. She is an advocate for

criminal justice reform Criminal justice reform addresses structural issues in criminal justice systems such as racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. Criminal justice reform can take place at any point where the crim ...

Early life and education

Rollins was born in

and raised in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...

, the oldest of five children. Her father, a second-generation

Irish-American , image = Irish ancestry in the USA 2018; Where Irish eyes are Smiling.png , image_caption = Irish Americans, % of population by state , caption = Notable Irish Americans , population = 36,115,472 (10.9%) alone ...

, worked as a teacher. Her maternal grandparents are from

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...

and her mother is a first-generation American. Rollins attended

Buckingham Browne & Nichols School Buckingham Browne & Nichols School, often referred to as BB&N, is an independent co-educational day school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, educating students from pre-kindergarten (called Beginners) through twelfth grade. BB&N is regularly ranked ...

and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in education and African-American studies from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

, a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

from the

Northeastern University School of Law Northeastern University School of Law (NUSL) is the law school of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded as an evening program to meet the needs of its local community, NUSL is nationally recognized for its cooperative legal ed ...

, and a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

in labor and unemployment law from the

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment a ...

.The Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy: Rachael Rollins

Career

Rollins began her legal career as a

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

to Judge Frederick Brown of the

Massachusetts Appeals Court The Massachusetts Appeals Court is the intermediate appellate court of Massachusetts. It was created in 1972 as a court of general appellate jurisdiction. The court is located at the John Adams Courthouse at Pemberton Square in Boston, the same ...

from 1997 to 1998. From 1999 to 2002, she was a field attorney for the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Nati ...

and from 2002 to 2006, Rollins was an attorney at

Bingham McCutchen LLP Bingham McCutchen LLP was a global law firm with approximately 850 attorneys in nine US offices and five international offices. It ceased operations in late 2014, when several hundred of its partners and associate lawyers left the firm to join Phi ...

in their

office. Rollins was an

assistant United States attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal go ...

for the District of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2011. Rollins served as the general counsel to the

Massachusetts Department of Transportation The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) oversees roads, public transit, aeronautics, and transportation licensing and registration in the US state of Massachusetts. It was created on November 1, 2009, by the 186th Session of t ...

from 2011 to 2013 and contemporaneously to the

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network i ...

from 2012 to 2013. She was chief legal counsel to the

Massachusetts Port Authority Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) is an American port authority in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It owns and operates three airports—Logan International Airport, Hanscom Field, and Worcester Regional Airport—and public terminals i ...

from 2013 to 2015.

District attorney

Election

During her campaign, Rollins pledged to

decriminalize Decriminalization or decriminalisation is the reclassification in law relating to certain acts or aspects of such to the effect that they are no longer considered a crime, including the removal of criminal penalties in relation to them. This reform ...

certain offenses, such as

shoplifting Shoplifting is the theft of goods from an open retail establishment, typically by concealing a store item on one's person, in pockets, under clothes or in a bag, and leaving the store without paying. With clothing, shoplifters may put on items ...

drug possession The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances. While some drugs are illegal to possess, many governments regulate th ...

, wanton or malicious destruction of property, drug possession with intent to distribute, driving with a suspended or revoked

driver's license A driver's license is a legal authorization, or the official document confirming such an authorization, for a specific individual to operate one or more types of motorized vehicles—such as motorcycles, cars, trucks, or buses—on a publi ...

, and

resisting arrest Resisting arrest, or simply resisting, is an illegal act of a suspected criminal either fleeing, threatening, assaulting, or providing a fake ID to a police officer during arrest. In most cases, the person responsible for resisting arrest is crim ...

.Dialynn Dwyer, "Q&A: Suffolk County District Attorney-elect Rachael Rollins on her priorities and how her personal experiences inform her work as a prosecutor," 'Boston Globe,' November 14, 2018 She defeated four other candidates in the September 4, 2018,

Democratic Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

primary and won the November 6, 2018, general election with 80% of the vote against independent challenger Michael P. Maloney. She took office on January 2, 2019.

Tenure

Rollins succeeded John P. Pappas, who was appointed by Governor

Charlie Baker Charles Duane Baker Jr. (born November 13, 1956) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 72nd governor of Massachusetts since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, Baker was a cabinet official under two governors of Massach ...

to serve as Suffolk County district attorney from September 26, 2018, completing the final months of Daniel F. Conley's 16-year term. In March 2019, she laid out a

memorandum A memorandum ( : memoranda; abbr: memo; from the Latin ''memorandum'', "(that) which is to be remembered") is a written message that is typically used in a professional setting. Commonly abbreviated "memo," these messages are usually brief and ...

on resolving petty crimes without jail time. In her capacity as district attorney, she required prosecutors to visit jails. Rollins endorsed New York City councilwoman

Tiffany Cabán Tiffany Cabán (born July 24, 1987) is an American attorney, politician, and political organizer who has served as a member of the New York City Council for the 22nd District since the 2021 New York City Council election. She won the Democrat ...

in the Democratic primary for

Queens County District Attorney The District Attorney of Queens County is the elected district attorney for Queens County in New York State, coterminous with the New York City borough of Queens. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws ...

. A study by economists at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, and

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

found that Rollins's policy change whereby nonviolent misdemeanor offenses would not be prosecuted did not lead to an increase in crime rates and that it reduced the likelihood that nonviolent misdemeanor offenders would be arrested in the future.

Cash bail

After campaigning on a platform that included reducing the use of

cash bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Bail is the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when required. In some countries, ...

, Rollins has since critiqued the Massachusetts Bail Fund for securing the release of incarcerated people charged with

violent Violence is the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy. Other definitions are also used, such as the World Health Organization's definition of violence as "the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened o ...

felonies A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resul ...

from

pretrial detention Remand, also known as pre-trial detention, preventive detention, or provisional detention, is the process of detaining a person until their trial after they have been arrested and charged with an offence. A person who is on remand is held i ...

. After a person bailed out by the Massachusetts Bail Fund allegedly committed another sexual assault following their release, Rollins became embroiled in a debate over the nature of cash bail with critics arguing that bail should not be used to keep individuals incarcerated who cannot pay and community safety should be ensured through other methods. Rollins faced further criticism when her office increased the bail of a person experiencing homelessness who was charged with armed robbery when learning he would be bailed out by the fund.

U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts

Nomination and confirmation

In July 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Rollins to be the

for the District of Massachusetts. Republican

U.S. Senator 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 powe ...

Tom Cotton Thomas Bryant Cotton (born May 13, 1977) is an American politician, attorney, and former military officer serving as the junior United States senator for Arkansas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the U.S. House of ...

said he would try to prevent Rollins from being confirmed, saying she supported policies that have contributed to an increase in violent crime. Senator

Ted Cruz Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States Senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas from ...

also criticized her for stating she would not prosecute certain crimes. In September 2021, a committee vote to advance Rollins' nomination was delayed after Cotton wanted more time to convince colleagues to oppose her. On September 30, 2021, her nomination was stalled in committee by an 11–11 vote. On December 8, 2021, Vice President

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...

cast a tie-breaking vote on the Senate's motion to invoke

cloture Cloture (, also ), 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. ...

on, as well as to confirm, Rollins's nomination. After her confirmation, the

United States Marshals Service The United States Marshals Service (USMS) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency in the United States. The USMS is a Government agency, bureau within the United States Department of Justice, U.S. Depa ...

refused Rollins' request for a full time security detail, assessing that she was at a low risk of actual harm after receiving death threats via email. On January 10, 2022, she was sworn-in as the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.

Controversies

In November 2022, the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...

's inspector general reportedly opened an investigation into her for appearing at a political fundraiser with First Lady

Jill Biden Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden (born June 3, 1951) is an American educator and the current first lady of the United States since 2021, as the wife of President Joe Biden. She was the second lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 when her hus ...

. The inspector general's office is also looking into alleged usage of her personal cellphone to conduct official business, raising potential security concerns. They also reportedly inquired about a June trip to California by Rollins to speak at CAA Amplify, which also paid for Rollins' trip. Justice Department employees are not permitted to accept payments for travel, and she was later asked by the Department to return the money to the group.

References

External links

Official D.A. website'Boston District Attorney Rachael Rollins shares Six Secrets for Success with RWU School of Law'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rollins, Rachael 1971 births Living people 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century African-American women African-American lawyers African-American women lawyers Massachusetts lawyers District attorneys in Suffolk County, Massachusetts Georgetown University Law Center alumni Northeastern University School of Law alumni People from Cambridge, Massachusetts University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni United States Attorneys for the District of Massachusetts