Gordon MacDonald

Gordon J. MacDonald (born November 27, 1961) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 37th chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court since March 4, 2021. A Republican, he previously served as the 30th attorney general of New Hampshire from 2017 to 2021 and, before entering public office, was a congressional chief of staff, a federal appellate law clerk, and a commercial-litigation partner at Nixon Peabody LLP.

As attorney general, MacDonald created a Civil Rights Unit and oversaw investigations involving St. Paul's School, the Youth Development Center, and the Hillsborough County Attorney's office, and pursued litigation concerning the Wire Act, PFAS contamination, and Massachusetts's taxation of remote workers.

The Executive Council rejected his first nomination as chief justice by a 3–2 vote in 2019 and confirmed him on renomination in January 2021, after the office had remained vacant for about eighteen months.

Beginning in late 2025, his tenure drew scrutiny over an employment payment to a senior court administrator; a state Department of Justice review found no reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct but concluded that human-resources best practices had not been followed, with legislative and litigation developments following. He began a medical leave of absence in July 2026.

Early life and education

MacDonald was born on November 27, 1961, in Los Angeles, California, to Marcelline (Kuglen) MacDonald and Gordon J. F. MacDonald, a geophysicist and environmental scientist who served on the first Council on Environmental Quality and joined Dartmouth College's faculty in 1972. His family moved to Hanover, New Hampshire when he was about ten; he attended public schools there and graduated from Hanover High School. He also represented New Hampshire hospitals in Medicaid reimbursement-rate and Medicaid Enhancement Tax litigation, culminating in a 2014 omnibus settlement for twenty-seven hospitals implemented through legislation signed by Governor Maggie Hassan. and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester in clergy-abuse settlement proceedings. He authored the third and fourth editions of the treatise Wiebusch on New Hampshire Civil Practice and Procedure. and also served on the Access to Justice Commission (2012–2017), the Campaign for Legal Services Leadership Council (chair, 2012–2015), the Committee on Character and Fitness (2018–2021), and as an Eleanor Campbell Charitable Fund trustee (2014–2017). The Executive Council confirmed him unanimously on April 5, 2017, and he was sworn in on April 13, succeeding Joseph Foster. He headed a department of about 141 employees, including 61 attorneys, and co-chaired National Association of Attorneys General committees on charities and training.

His office issued 2018 guidance for the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule, or "Laurie List," of officers with potential credibility problems. Litigation over the list's confidentiality continued through his tenure until the state Supreme Court ruled in October 2020 that it was not a confidential personnel document.

Institutional investigations and oversight

In July 2017, the department opened a criminal investigation into St. Paul's School's handling of sexual-assault and abuse reports. In September 2018, MacDonald said investigators had evidence supporting possible institutional child-endangerment charges, but the State instead entered a five-year agreement, described in contemporary reporting as unprecedented, requiring an independent compliance overseer, reporting and training reforms, victim assistance, and reimbursement of certain costs. When the first overseer, Jeffrey Maher, resigned in October 2020, alleging resistance and an intolerable working environment, MacDonald called the allegations serious, and the agreement continued with additional terms.

In July 2019, the department announced indictments against two former Youth Development Center counselors and a wider investigation of alleged abuse at the state youth detention facility. It dismissed dozens of indictments in March 2020, saying speedy-trial deadlines would constrain the expanding investigation and that charges could be refiled; most resulting prosecutions, verdicts, settlements, and compensation programs occurred after MacDonald left office.

In September 2019, after Hillsborough County Attorney Michael Conlon declined MacDonald's suggestion that he resign amid complaints from police chiefs, MacDonald placed the county office's day-to-day criminal-law-enforcement functions under state supervision, citing prosecution and management failures; Conlon remained in office and disputed the allegations. The Executive Council rejected MacDonald's proposal that former Manchester Police Chief David Mara oversee the office; modified state supervision continued until June 2020.

Civil and federal litigation

Because MacDonald had represented Purdue Pharma, he recused himself from the state's opioid case; under screened leadership, the department sued the company in August 2017.

In February 2019, the department and the New Hampshire Lottery Commission challenged the federal government's revised Wire Act interpretation, which threatened online lottery sales and interstate products. A federal district court ruled in June 2019 that the Act applied only to sports gambling, and the First Circuit affirmed in January 2021.

New Hampshire also sued eight chemical manufacturers, including 3M and DuPont-related entities, in May 2019 over alleged statewide PFAS contamination, seeking investigation, remediation, treatment, monitoring, and natural-resource damages.

In October 2020, MacDonald filed an original action in the U.S. Supreme Court, New Hampshire v. Massachusetts, challenging Massachusetts's taxation of New Hampshire residents working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the policy infringed New Hampshire's sovereignty. Other states supported New Hampshire, the U.S. Department of Justice supported Massachusetts, and the Court declined jurisdiction in June 2021, after MacDonald had become chief justice.

Election law and COVID-19 orders

During MacDonald's tenure, the department investigated and prosecuted individual wrongful-voting cases and defended the 2017 voter-registration law known as SB 3. Election activists later criticized his handling of a roughly 300-vote discrepancy in the 2020 Windham recount. On July 10, 2019, the Democratic-controlled Executive Council rejected him 3–2 on party lines; critics described him as partisan and strongly conservative, while MacDonald cited support from prominent Democrats, including former Chief Justice John T. Broderick Jr., and remained attorney general. Sununu said he was "absolutely disappointed".

No replacement was nominated after Lynn retired on August 26, 2019. Associate Justice Gary E. Hicks served as acting chief justice while the court operated with four members, and the chief justiceship stayed vacant for about eighteen and a half months. At a seven-and-a-half-hour public hearing on January 21, held under COVID-19 protocols, 37 witnesses testified. Much of the legal establishment supported MacDonald across party lines, while opposition came from two directions — reproductive-rights and voting-rights advocates on one flank; anti-mandate activists, small-business owners, and Windham-recount campaigners on the other — with RebuildNH petitions bearing about 1,000 signatures also submitted. He was sworn in on March 4, 2021, as the 37th chief justice, succeeding Hicks as head of the court; Jane Young became acting attorney general. It also released a 2025 efficiency study and created a statewide administrative-judge position filled by Circuit Court Judge Christopher Keating.

MacDonald repeatedly sought additional judges and staff from lawmakers, detailing requests for seven new Circuit Court judges and dozens of staff at the Bar's 2023 Midyear Meeting. In spring 2025, warning that proposed budget reductions could cause courthouse closures, jury-trial delays, and layoffs, he imposed a hiring freeze. He launched a court diversity, equity, and inclusion project in 2022; according to Dianne Martin's later statement to state investigators, in late February 2025 he directed by text message that it be ended.

Domestic-violence case procedures

After Lindsay Smith, denied a final protective order in New Hampshire, was shot in Salem, Massachusetts, in November 2021, MacDonald ordered an institutional review and created a Task Force on Domestic Violence Cases. The review found the judge's ruling supportable on the record but identified systemic improvements; the task force examined forms, legal assistance, education, legal standards, information sharing, and case processing, and reported to the Supreme Court in 2022. In July 2025, he ordered another review after Marisol Fuentes-Huaracha was killed in Berlin by Michael Gleason following domestic-violence proceedings; it found sufficient evidence had existed to continue Gleason's detention and identified gaps in the protection system, including the effects of magistrates' abrupt departures.

Selected opinions

In Paine v. Ride-Away, Inc. (2022), MacDonald wrote for a unanimous court that therapeutic-cannabis use authorized by state law was not categorically incapable of being a reasonable disability accommodation under the state Law Against Discrimination, requiring individualized analysis, although employers were not required to permit workplace possession or impairment.

In Provenza v. Town of Canaan (2022), he wrote the unanimous decision requiring release under the Right-to-Know Law of a taxpayer-funded investigation into alleged excessive force by a Canaan police officer, emphasizing the public interest in how the municipality investigated alleged official misconduct.

MacDonald dissented in State v. Sargent (2024), arguing that the evidence supported a former police chief's official-oppression conviction after the majority reversed it for lack of proof of a statutory personal "benefit". Weeks later, he dissented again when the majority allowed three retired troopers who had admitted inflating or falsifying activity statistics to seek removal from the Exculpatory Evidence Schedule, writing that prosecutors' disclosure obligations contain no expiration date.

In Doe v. Manchester School District (2024), MacDonald wrote the 3–1 majority opinion upholding a school-district policy encouraging staff not to disclose a student's transgender or gender-nonconforming status without consent, holding that an advisory rather than mandatory nondisclosure policy did not unconstitutionally burden parental rights; Justice Melissa Countway dissented. Reuters described it as the first state-supreme-court ruling on school transgender-disclosure policies; legislation signed by Governor Kelly Ayotte in July 2026 required employees to answer certain parental inquiries and was widely described as overriding the decision's practical effect.

In Monadnock Rod and Gun Club v. Town of Peterborough (2024), he wrote the decision rejecting a gun club's challenge to enforcement action over a shooting range built partly on neighboring property, declining to reach an unpreserved Second Amendment argument.

In Attorney General v. Hood (2025), the court, in its first examination of the state Civil Rights Act, unanimously affirmed dismissal of complaints against members of the white-nationalist group NSC-131 over a "Keep New England White" banner in Portsmouth, holding the State's proposed construction unconstitutionally overbroad and the trespass allegations insufficient.

In June 2025, he wrote the 3–1 Rand decision upholding the State's administration of the statewide education property tax (SWEPT), permitting property-wealthy municipalities to retain collections exceeding their assigned adequate-education costs. The attorney general welcomed the decision, school-funding advocates criticized it, and Justice James Bassett dissented in part.

Recusals and disqualification

Recusals arising from service as attorney general

Because matters from his attorney-general tenure continued for years, MacDonald has recused from a number of cases. He did not participate in the ConVal school-funding litigation, in which the remaining justices held in July 2025 that the state's per-pupil contribution was unconstitutionally low. He also recused from litigation over Governor Sununu's records-retention policy, in which the remaining court split 2–2, leaving the lower-court ruling in place, and from a Right-to-Know dispute over police disciplinary files.

Rand recusal motion

In a separate Rand appeal (docket 2026-0150), plaintiffs moved on March 16, 2026, to recuse four justices, arguing as to MacDonald that his attorney-general role in the related ConVal litigation created an appearance concern. The State objected, the court declined to alter its recusal procedures, and the challenged justices considered the requests separately, with the first denying recusal in May. On June 4, 2026, MacDonald denied the motion as to himself, distinguishing Rand from ConVal, noting that he had left the attorney general's office before Rand was filed, and citing the duty not to recuse without adequate grounds. Plaintiffs sought reconsideration on June 18; the motion remained pending when he began medical leave, and no body has found misconduct in connection with the dispute.

National judicial service

Legal education and admissions reform

In August 2023, the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) created the Committee on Legal Education and Admissions Reform (CLEAR) and appointed MacDonald chair. With Vice Chair Justice C. Shannon Bacon of New Mexico, the committee conducted more than 90 stakeholder interviews, twelve listening sessions, surveys of thousands of judges, attorneys, and law students, and a March 2025 national convening in Cincinnati.

The July 2025 CLEAR report urged state supreme courts to lead reform of legal education and licensure, offering eight recommendations spanning practice readiness, accreditation, rankings, alternative licensure pathways, public-service lawyers, and rural practice.

Conference of Chief Justices and National Center for State Courts

MacDonald joined the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) board of directors in July 2025. As of mid-2026, he was president-elect of the Conference of Chief Justices and chair-elect of the NCSC board, offices currently held jointly by South Dakota Chief Justice Steven Jensen; he had not yet assumed either office.

Hantz Marconi investigation

In 2024, Associate Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi came under criminal investigation over an effort to intervene with Governor Sununu concerning the state's investigation of her husband, ports director Geno Marconi. She pleaded no contest in October 2025 to misdemeanor criminal solicitation, returned from administrative leave, and retired from the court in February 2026.

MacDonald was interviewed as a witness on August 2, 2024; a transcript released in January 2025 recorded him telling investigators, "I did not know she was going to see the governor." In an October 2024 recusal motion supported by her affidavit, Hantz Marconi stated that she had informed MacDonald of her intent to request the meeting and that he raised no objection. Legislators later cited the differing accounts during debate over a proposed 2026 House inquiry; both were sworn statements, and no tribunal has determined which is accurate.

Dianne Martin employment matter and related scrutiny

Employment change and payment

Dianne Martin worked under MacDonald at the Department of Justice, where he promoted her to chief of staff in 2019. After serving on the Public Utilities Commission — she was hired two years into a six-year term — she became director of the Judicial Branch's Administrative Office of the Courts in 2021 at a salary exceeding $143,000.

According to NHPR and the attorney general's investigative records, on February 28, 2025, Justices Melissa Countway and Patrick Donovan told Martin that her position was eliminated, and she was escorted from the building. Offered the lower-paid post of general counsel to the Office of Bar Admissions, she initially declined, then reconsidered after emailing MacDonald, who praised her work and urged her to reconsider. Negotiation through her attorney produced a re-offer at a higher salary of $154,109, fully remote work, a waived probationary period, and MacDonald again as her direct supervisor. Judge Christopher Keating, her interim replacement, told investigators there "may have been an implicit threat but not an explicit threat of litigation," which Martin denies. Weeks into the new role, MacDonald requested a pay increase for her. The payment came the same month as the branch hiring freeze, and Martin's appointment overlapped for five months with her retiring predecessor's employment at matching salaries, despite an apparent two-week limit in branch policy. MacDonald's attorneys, Jane E. Young — his former deputy attorney general — and Mark D. Morrissette, contacted the attorney general's office the day NHPR published its report, describing the account as an "incomplete" and "misleading" characterization of a complex personnel matter. The attorney general's office confirmed a preliminary review on November 5.

On November 25, 2025, the Department of Justice announced it found no reasonable suspicion of actionable criminal conduct but concluded that human-resources best practices had not been followed, noting limits on its authority over Judicial Branch employment decisions.

While the review was pending, MacDonald disclosed the matter to litigants but declined to recuse from cases involving the attorney general's office, on the ground that the review was non-adversarial. The Globe noted that Justice Hantz Marconi had recused from all Department of Justice cases while that office investigated her husband. Rep. Katelyn Kuttab of Windham argued that lawmakers had an independent role in examining the court's conduct. The branch's general counsel defended sole-source contracting, while former Justice Chuck Douglas and legislators of both parties criticized the firm's partisan ties and the process's lack of transparency; the House Finance Committee chair said he was unaware of the contract.

Personal life

MacDonald married Jennifer A. Eber, a Dartmouth classmate and attorney, and they have a daughter.

Selected works

Gordon J. MacDonald, Wiebusch on New Hampshire Civil Practice and Procedure (Matthew Bender & Co./LexisNexis, 3rd and 4th eds.; 4th ed. 2014), a multi-volume treatise originally written by Richard V. Wiebusch.