Sandra Lea Lynch was born on July 31,1946 and is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
20 Facts About Sandra Lynch
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Sandra Lynch is the first woman to serve on that court.
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Sandra Lynch received a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College in 1968, and a Juris Doctor from the Boston University School of Law in 1971.
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Sandra Lynch was an editor of the Boston University Law Review.
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From 1971 to 1973, Sandra Lynch served as a law clerk for Judge Raymond James Pettine of the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island.
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At the time, a woman law clerk was so unusual that Sandra Lynch was profiled in a Boston Evening Globe article.
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Sandra Lynch then went on to serve as an assistant state attorney general for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1973 to 1974 and general counsel for the Massachusetts Department of Education from 1974 to 1978.
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Sandra Lynch was in private practice in Boston from 1978 until being appointed to the First Circuit.
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Sandra Lynch served as an instructor at the Boston University Law School from 1973 to 1974 and as special counsel to the Judicial Conduct Commission of Massachusetts from 1990 to 1992.
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From 1992 to 1993, Sandra Lynch served as president of the Boston Bar Association.
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Sandra Lynch was confirmed by the Senate on March 17,1995, by a voice vote, and received her commission on the same day.
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Sandra Lynch served as chief judge from 2008 to 2015, and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States over the same period.
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In February 2022, Sandra Lynch announced plans to assume senior status upon the confirmation of a successor.
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Sandra Lynch found that the state law unconstitutionally intruded into the federal government's power to conduct foreign policy.
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In 2006, Sandra Lynch found that trading a gun for drugs constitutes a "use" of a gun for purposes of a criminal law against using a firearm in relation to drug trafficking.
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Sandra Lynch's ruling was later abrogated by the Supreme Court's decision in Watson v United States, 552 US 74.
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In Massachusetts v United States Department of Health and Human Services, Lynch joined a unanimous panel in holding that the Defense of Marriage Act was an unconstitutional violation of the equal protection principles of the Fifth Amendment, because it denied to same-sex couples the federal benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples.
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On October 19,2021, Sandra Lynch wrote the majority opinion that upheld Maine's vaccine mandate for health care workers.
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Sandra Lynch received an Alumnae Achievement Awards from Wellesley College in 1997, and the Haskell Cohn Distinguished Judicial Service Award from the Boston Bar Association in 2011.
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Sandra Lynch is married and has one son; she lives in the North End, Boston.