Judge David Barron
First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
David Jeremiah Barron was born in July 1967 in Washington, D.C.. He earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. He clerked for a judge on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, then for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. He then worked in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel as an attorney-advisor.
Barron became an assistant professor at Harvard Law School. He served as Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel during an academic leave. The governor of Massachusetts appointed Barron to the state’s Board of Higher Education in 2012.
Barron was nominated by President Barack Obama to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in September 2013. He was confirmed by the Senate and received his judicial commission in May 2014. He became chief judge in April 2022.
Barron is married to Juliette and they have three children.
In the News…
The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals became the third court to uphold a block on President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Judge David Barron wrote the decision for the three-judge panel denying the administration’s request to overturn the block by a Massachusetts federal judge.
President Trump’s executive order seeks to block automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to mothers who are in the country illegally or who have temporary legal status when the father is not a citizen or legal permanent resident. The order is based on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the Fourteenth Amendment.
Chief Judge Barron did not address the lower court’s block of the president’s order, only ruling that the administration’s attorneys did not provide enough evidence to support the lifting of the block.
The government’s attorneys requested a stay of the block, claiming that the plaintiffs lacked standing. The chief judge wrote that he found “no basis for us to conclude that it has made the required strong showing to undermine the plaintiff-states’ Article III standing.”
Regarding the president’s order, Chief Judge Barron stated, “The enforcement of the executive order would dramatically break with the executive branch’s longstanding legal position and thereby disrupt longstanding governmental practices.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Chief Judge Barron today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable David Barron
First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse
1 Courthouse Way
Boston, MA 02210
