Jon O. Newman

Jon Ormond Newman (born 1932) is a Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Education and legal training

Born in New York City, New York, Newman earned his Artium Baccalaureus degree from Princeton University in 1953 and his Bachelor of Laws from Yale Law School in 1956. After Yale, he clerked for Judge George Thomas Washington of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and then clerked for United States Chief Justice Earl Warren from 1957 to 1958. Additionally, he was in the United States Army Reserve from 1954 to 1962.^[2]

He was in private practice from 1958 to 1960 in Hartford, Connecticut and served as a graduate instructor at Trinity College.^[3] He also served as a special counsel to the Governor of Connecticut in 1960. He was an executive assistant to the United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1961 to 1962 and then joined the staff of United States Senator Abraham Ribicoff as an administrative assistant from 1963 to 1964. He was the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut from 1964 to 1969 when Richard Nixon took office. He entered private practice in Hartford again until 1971 when he was nominated to a federal district judgeship.^[2]

Federal judicial service

Newman was nominated by President Richard Nixon on December 2, 1971, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut vacated by Judge William H. Timbers. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 11, 1971, and received his commission on December 15, 1971. His service was terminated on June 25, 1979, due to his elevation to the Second Circuit.^[2] Newman's best-known opinion as a District Judge was an opinion in Abele v. Markle, decided by a three-judge court in 1972, which struck down Connecticut's abortion statute and was seen as a precursor to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade the following year.

Newman was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on April 30, 1979, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629. He was confirmed by the Senate on June 19, 1979, and received his commission on June 21, 1979. He served as Chief Judge from 1993 to 1997. He assumed senior status on July 1, 1997.^[2]

Honor

On December 8, 2016, at a special ceremony at the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Elena Kagan presented to Judge Newman, on behalf of the federal judiciary, the 2016 Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award.^[4] The Devitt Award honors an Article III judge who has achieved a distinguished career and made significant contributions to the administration of justice, the advancement of the rule of law, and the improvement of society as a whole.

Noteworthy decisions

• Abele v. Markle, 351 F. Supp. 224 (D. Conn. 1972).
• Bennett v. Mukasey - A lawyer cannot take a client's money and then fail to proceed with his case because the client is not paying the bill. The Court sent immigration lawyer to the Grievance Panel for possible violation of ethical rules after the lawyer did not process the appeal of his client because of lack of payment.
• Salinger v. Random House 811 F.2d 90 (2d Cir.1987) - With unpublished works, the right of the author to control publication take precedence over the right of "fair use"
• Rivera v. LaPorte, 896 F.2d 691 (2d Cir. 1990)
• Kadic v. Karadzic, 70 F.3d 232 (2d Cir. 1996) – There was subject matter jurisdiction under the Alien Tort Claim Act, 28 U.S.C.S. § 1350, because aliens brought an action for a tort committed in violation of international law
• Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 137 F.3d 109 (2nd Cir. 1998)
• United States of America v. Cromitie (Williams) (2nd Cir. 2013) (see 2009 Bronx terrorism plot)^[5]

References

Sources

• Jon Ormond Newman at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Appearances on C-SPAN