Margaret R. Guzman

Margaret Rose Guzman (born 1960) is an American attorney serving as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She previously served as a judge of the Ayer District Court in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

Education Guzman initially enrolled at the University of Southern Maine for her undergraduate education but transferred to Clark University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989. She received her Juris Doctor from the Boston University School of Law in 1992.

Career From 1992 to 2005, Guzman served as a public defender for the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services. She was a sole practitioner in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 2005 to 2009. From 2009 to 2017, she served as a judge on Dudley District Court. In 2012, the special counsel for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court noted that Guzman had acquitted all 149 defendants who appeared before her in bench trials on drunk driving charges. The report, which did not allege judicial misconduct, called for reform of procedures to ensure that lawyers did not engage in judge shopping. She joined the Ayer District Court in 2017 and left in 2023 to become a federal judge.

Federal judicial service

On July 13, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Guzman to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. President Biden nominated Guzman to the seat vacated by Judge Timothy S. Hillman, who assumed senior status on July 1, 2022. On September 21, 2022, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Conservatives and law enforcement attacked her nomination, claiming that she is reflexively pro-criminal defendant and pointing out that Guzman had acquitted all 149 defendants who appeared before her in bench trials on drunk driving charges while serving as a judge on Dudley District Court. On December 1, 2022, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On January 3, 2023, her nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate; she was renominated later the same day. On February 2, 2023, her nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote. On February 28, 2023, the Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 49–48 vote, with the Vice President Kamala Harris voting for the affirmative. On March 1, 2023, her nomination was confirmed by a 49–48 vote, with the vice president casting the tie-breaking vote. She received her judicial commission on March 3, 2023. She is the first Hispanic judge to serve on the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Notable cases In December 2023, Guzman allowed a lawsuit against 3M and other corporations to proceed. The lawsuit was filed by Massachusetts homeowners who had their water tested and found that their drinking water contained excessive and potentially dangerous amounts of PFAS.