26 Facts About Alison Nathan

Alison Julie Nathan was born on June 18,1972 and is an American lawyer who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit since 2022.

Alison Nathan served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 2011 to 2022.

Alison Nathan previously served as associate White House counsel for President Barack Obama.

Alison Nathan taught English in Japan from 1994 to 1995, then was an editor of an English-language newspaper in Bangkok from 1995 to 1996.

Alison Nathan later attended Cornell Law School, where she was editor-in-chief of the Cornell Law Review.

From 2000 until 2001, Alison Nathan served as a law clerk for Ninth Circuit judge Betty Binns Fletcher.

From 2001 until 2002, Alison Nathan served as a law clerk for Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court.

From 2002 until 2006, Alison Nathan served as an associate in the New York and Washington, DC offices of the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

From 2006 until 2008, Alison Nathan served as a visiting associate professor of law at Fordham University School of Law.

Alison Nathan was Fritz Alexander fellow at the New York University School of Law from 2008 until 2009.

From 2009 until 2010, Alison Nathan served as special assistant to the president and associate White House counsel in the Barack Obama administration.

From 2010 until her appointment as a United States district judge, Alison Nathan worked in the New York State Attorney General's Office as a special counsel to the state's Solicitor General, Barbara Underwood.

In 2016, Alison Nathan was a guest judge for Harvard Law School's Ames Moot Court Competition.

Alison Nathan is recorded as the second openly gay jurist on the federal bench, after Deborah Batts.

Since her appointment in 2013, Alison Nathan supported changes to the clerkship system under what has been known as the Law Clerk Hiring Plan.

Alison Nathan granted some inmates compassionate release due to the pandemic, allowing them to leave prison early.

Alison Nathan ordered Maxwell detained pending trial, denying Maxwell's four bail applications on the ground that she presented a substantial risk of flight.

Alison Nathan's rulings were all upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

In 2020, Alison Nathan issued an unusual decision strongly criticizing the US attorney's office in Manhattan, and its leadership, for their handling of the high-profile case of Ali Sadr Hasheminejad.

In 2021, Alison Nathan presided over a bench trial regarding the ownership of the Guennol Stargazer, a rare idol dating between 4800 and 4100 BCE that likely originated in what is Turkey's Manisa Province.

Alison Nathan rejected Turkey's claim, finding that there was insufficient evidence to show the artifact, which had been exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for decades, had been excavated after 1906.

Alison Nathan held that Turkey's claim was in any case barred by laches, since it had waited too long to pursue its claim.

On November 17,2021, Biden announced his intent to nominate Alison Nathan to fill the vacancy; her nomination was sent to the Senate the following day.

Alison Nathan received her judicial commission on March 30,2022.

Alison Nathan became the second openly LGBTQ judge to serve on the 2nd Circuit.

Alison Nathan is married to Meg Satterthwaite, a professor at NYU School of Law.