Beryl Howell

Beryl Alaine Howell (born December 3, 1956) is an American attorney and jurist who serves as a senior United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She was appointed to the District of Columbia federal court in 2010 by President Barack Obama, and she served as its chief judge from 2016 to 2023. As chief judge, she supervised federal grand juries in the district, including for the Mueller special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and investigations into attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election.

Early life and education Howell was born in 1956 in Fort Benning. She is the daughter of an U.S. Army officer. She attended elementary and secondary school in six states and Germany.

Howell graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy with honors. From 1978 to 1980, Howell worked as a legal assistant at the law firm Shanley & Fisher (now part of Faegre Drinker). She then attended Columbia Law School, graduating in 1983 with a Juris Doctor as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.

Career

After law school, Howell was a law clerk for Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey from 1983 to 1984. From 1985 to 1987, she was in private practice as an associate at the New York City law firm of Schulte Roth & Zabel. From 1993 to 2003, Howell served on the staff of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary as a senior advisor to Chairman Patrick Leahy, including as the committee's general counsel starting in 1997. She also helped Sen. Leahy fend off proposals to impose new limits on the FOIA. the No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act),

From 2004 to 2010, she served as a member of the United States Sentencing Commission after being appointed by President George W. Bush. In her acceptance speech, she said: "My D.C. judicial colleagues and I regularly see the impact of big lies at the sentencing of hundreds, hundreds of individuals who have been convicted for offense conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, when they disrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential election at the U.S. Capitol." She also cited historian Heather Cox Richardson’s book, Democracy Awakening. The next month, Representative Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, filed a complaint of judicial misconduct in which she alleged that Howell's remarks were "conduct unbecoming of a federal judge".

Lobbying From 2004 to 2009, Howell was executive vice president, and general counsel and, briefly, Universal Music Group.

In 2008, Howell served as a member of the Commission on Cybersecurity for the 44th Presidency, sponsored by bipartisan think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Academic

Howell teaches legal ethics as an adjunct professor at the American University's Washington College of Law.

Federal judicial service

On July 14, 2010, Howell was nominated by President Barack Obama to the United States district judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seat being vacated by Judge Paul L. Friedman, who assumed senior status on December 31, 2009. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on December 22, 2010. She received her judicial commission on December 27, 2010. She served as the chief judge from March 17, 2016, to March 17, 2023. She assumed senior status on February 1, 2024.

Notable decisions

Hodge v Talkin In 2011, Harold Hodge Jr. stood outside the U.S. Supreme Court wearing a sign that protested the American government's treatment of black and Hispanic people. He did so in violation of a 1949 federal law that makes such protests a crime. Hodge sued the Marshal of the United States Supreme Court and the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia under the First Amendment. In a June 2013 decision, Howell struck down the law as violating the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech. The judge wrote, "The absolute prohibition on expressive activity in the statute is unreasonable, substantially overbroad and irreconcilable with the First Amendment." The defendants appealed the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which reversed Howell's decision and reinstated the law as it applies to the Supreme Court Plaza and steps. Hodge v. Talkin, 799 F. 3d 1145 (D.C. Cir. 2015).

FEC and anonymous dark money In 2018, Howell struck down a regulation of the Federal Election Commission allowing dark money groups, certain nonprofit organizations engaged in political activities, to conceal their donors. She wrote that the regulation "blatantly undercuts the congressional goal of fully disclosing the sources of money flowing into federal political campaigns, and thereby suppresses the benefits intended to accrue from disclosure." The Supreme Court later declined to review the decision.

Robert Mueller grand jury

In that same year, Howell became the supervising judge for the grand jury working for special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Justice Department attorneys had previously asserted that congressional investigators had "not yet exhausted [their] available discovery tools,” arguments Howell said "smack of farce," as the administration had openly stated it would stonewall the investigation.

Executive Order 14230 against Perkins Coie

On March 6, 2025, citing the firm's association with Fusion GPS and George Soros, President Trump issued Executive Order 14230 titled "Addressing Risks from Perkins Coie LLP." The order suspended security clearances for the firm's employees, restricted their access to federal buildings, directed agencies to review and potentially terminate contracts with the firm, and ordered the government not to hire attorneys from the firm.

In May 2025, Judge Howell issued a permanent injunction blocking the executive order in its entirety; citing "No American president has ever before issued executive orders like the one... this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare who penned the phrase "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"... The importance of independent lawyers to ensuring the American judicial systems fair and impartial administration of justice has been recognized in this country since its founding era in 1770... The instant case presents an unprecedented attack on these founding principles."

Warrentless arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants In December 2025, Howell limited warrantless immigration arrests in Washington D.C., ruling that Federal immigration officers cannot make an arrest without a warrant unless they can show probable cause that the person is a flight risk.

Personal life Howell is married to Michael Rosenfeld, an executive producer at National Geographic Television & Film. Beryl Howell, "Seven Weeks: The Making of the USA Patriot Act", 72 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1145 (2004). Beryl Howell & Eric Friedberg, 21st Century Forensics: Searching for the "Smoking Gun" in Computer Hard Drives," 37 Prosecutor 18 (2003).