Rachel Peter Kovner (born September 29, 1979) is an American lawyer from New York and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Rachel Kovner | |
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| Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York | |
| Assumed office October 17, 2019 | |
| Appointed by | Donald Trump |
| Preceded by | Carol Amon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rachel Peter Kovner September 29, 1979 New York City, U.S. |
| Parent |
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| Education | Harvard University (BA) Stanford University (JD) |
Education
editKovner earned her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 2001, and her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Stanford Law School in 2006, where she graduated with the highest GPA in the school's history, was inducted into the Order of the Coif, and served as the senior articles editor of the Stanford Law Review.[1][2]
Legal career
editAt the start of her legal career, she served as a law clerk to Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 2006 to 2007, and then for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States from 2007 to 2008.[1]
Prior to her service in the United States Department of Justice's Office of the Solicitor General, she served for four years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 2009 to 2013, where she served as trial counsel in ten felony trials and argued seven appeals in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
From 2013 to 2019, she served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Solicitor General's Office within the Department of Justice, where she had represented the United States in litigation before the Supreme Court.[1] She has argued thirteen cases before the Supreme Court and has briefed eleven additional cases.[3] [4]
Federal judicial service
editIn August 2017, Kovner was one of several candidates pitched to New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand by the White House as judicial candidates for vacancies on the federal courts in New York.[5] On May 10, 2018, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Kovner to serve as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. On May 15, 2018, her nomination was sent to the Senate. She was nominated to the seat that was vacated by Judge Carol Amon, who assumed senior status on November 30, 2016. On August 1, 2018, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[6] On September 13, 2018, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 21–0 vote.[7]
On January 3, 2019, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate.[8] On April 8, 2019, President Trump announced the renomination of Kovner to the district court.[9] On May 21, 2019, her nomination was sent to the Senate.[10] On June 20, 2019, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 21–1 vote.[11] On October 16, 2019, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 85–3 vote.[12] Her nomination was confirmed later that day by a 88–3 vote.[13] She received her judicial commission on October 17, 2019.[14]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c "President Donald J. Trump Announces Fourteenth Wave of Judicial Nominees, Thirteenth Wave of United States Attorney Nominees, and Eighth Wave of United States Marshal Nominees" White House, May 10, 2018
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "More on the Fabulous Rachel Kovner". Above the Law. September 13, 2006. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
- ^ https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Kovner SJQ.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ https://www.oyez.org/advocates/rachel_p_kovner [bare URL]
- ^ Tillman, Zoe (August 7, 2017). "The White House Has Pitched A Nominee For Manhattan's Powerful US Attorney Opening". BuzzFeed. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
- ^ United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Nominations for August 1, 2018
- ^ Results of Executive Business Meeting – September 13, 2018 Senate Judiciary Committee
- ^ "Trump Drops Obama Picks, N.Y., Calif. Names From Judges List". Bloomberg Law. January 23, 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
- ^ "President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominations", White House, April 8, 2019
- ^ "Twelve Nominations Sent to the Senate", The White House, May 21, 2019
- ^ "Results of Executive Business Meeting – June 20, 2019" (PDF). Senate Judiciary Committee.
- ^ "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture Rachel P. Kovner to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York)". United States Senate. October 16, 2019.
- ^ "On the Nomination (Confirmation Rachel P. Kovner, of New York, to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of New York)". United States Senate. October 16, 2019.
- ^ Rachel Kovner at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
External links
edit- Rachel Kovner at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
- Appearances at the U.S. Supreme Court from the Oyez Project
- Appearances on C-SPAN