Rachel P. Kovner

Rachel P. Kovner
Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
Incumbent
Assumed office October 17, 2019
Appointed by	Donald Trump
Preceded by	Carol Amon
Personal details
Born	(1979-09-29) September 29, 1979 (age 41) New York City, New York, U.S.
Relations	Bruce Kovner (father)
Education	Harvard College (BA) Stanford Law School (JD)

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.

Education

Kovner earned her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Harvard College, and her Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School, 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

At 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, and then to Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States. ^[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, 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 eleven cases before the Supreme Court and has briefed an additional eleven cases. ^[3]

Federal judicial service

In 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. ^[4] On May 10, 2018, President 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. ^[5] On September 13, 2018, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 21–0 vote. ^[6]

On January 3, 2019, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate. ^[7] On April 8, 2019, President Trump announced the renomination of Kovner to the district court. ^[8] On May 21, 2019, her nomination was sent to the Senate. ^[9] On June 20, 2019, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 21–1 vote. ^[10] On October 16, 2019, her nomination was confirmed by a vote of 88–3. ^[11] She received her judicial commission on October 17, 2019.

References

1. "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.
2. "More on the Fabulous Rachel Kovner". Above the Law. September 13, 2006. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
3. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Kovner%20SJQ.pdf
4. Tillman, Zoe (August 7, 2017). "The White House Has Pitched A Nominee For Manhattan's Powerful US Attorney Opening". BuzzFeed . Retrieved May 10, 2018.
5. United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Nominations for August 1, 2018
6. Results of Executive Business Meeting – September 13, 2018 Senate Judiciary Committee
7. "Trump Drops Obama Picks, N.Y., Calif. Names From Judges List". Bloomberg Law. January 23, 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
8. "President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominations", White House, April 8, 2019
9. "Twelve Nominations Sent to the Senate", The White House, May 21, 2019
10. Results of Executive Business Meeting – June 20, 2019, Senate Judiciary Committee
11. Roll Call Vote 116th Congress - 1st Session United States Senate Vote Summary: Vote Number 323, United States Senate, October 16, 2019

External links

• Rachel P. Kovner at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges , a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center .
• Appearances at the U.S. Supreme Court from the Oyez Project
• Appearances on C-SPAN

Legal offices
Preceded by Carol Amon	Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York 2019–present	Incumbent