Judge Gerard E. Lynch
Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
Gerard Edmund Lynch was born in September 1951 in Brooklyn, New York. He received an undergraduate degree from Columbia University and earned his Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School. He clerked at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and later for Supreme Court Justice William Brennan.
Lynch served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York for three years before entering private practice.
He was Vice Dean of Columbia Law School for five years and has been a visiting professor or lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, National Police Academy of Tokyo, the University of Tokyo, University of Buenos Aires, the Leiden University in the Netherlands, and the University of Amsterdam.
He was nominated to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President Bill Clinton. He was confirmed by the Senate and received his commission in May 2000. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Lynch to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He was confirmed by the Senate and commissioned in September 2009. He took senior status in September 2016.
In the News…
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reinstated a New York law that limits protests near courthouses. The reinstated law prohibits people from engaging in conduct “concerning the conduct of a trial being held” within 200 feet of the courthouse. Should someone be found in violation of the law, they could face criminal contempt charges.
The law was challenged on First Amendment grounds, claiming it violated a right to free speech. At a trial in the district court, a federal judge struck down the New York law, finding it infringed on First Amendment rights.
On appeal, in a 2-1 decision written by U.S. Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that the New York law could be found to further a compelling state interest. As a result, the court vacated the decision and remanded the case back to the district court to “craft a narrower injunction prohibiting the application of [the New York law] only in the circumstances presented by the {individual’s} conduct in this case.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Judge Lynch today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Gerard E. Lynch
Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse
40 Foley Square
New York, NY 10007
