Michael Boudin

Michael Boudin ( ; November 29, 1939 – March 24, 2025) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a United States circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit from 1992 to 2021. He served as Chief Judge of that court from 2001 to 2008. Prior to his service on the First Circuit, he was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Early life and education Boudin was born in Manhattan, New York on November 29, 1939 into a Jewish family. He was the son of poet Jean (Roisman) Boudin and civil liberties attorney Leonard Boudin and the older brother of Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin. Michael Boudin was educated at Elizabeth Irwin High School before going on to Harvard University, where he graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts in government. He then attended Harvard Law School, where became the president of the Harvard Law Review. He subsequently clerked for Justice John Marshall Harlan II of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1965 to 1966.

Legal career From 1966 to 1987, Boudin practiced law at Covington & Burling, a Washington, D.C., law firm. In 2012, Boudin penned a decision holding the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law defining marriage as an opposite-sex union, unconstitutional. Boudin was widely regarded as having a brilliant legal mind. His nephew, Chesa Boudin, is an attorney who has served as district attorney of San Francisco.

Boudin died from complications of dementia and Parkinson's disease at a care facility in Boston on March 24, 2025, at the age of 85.