Michael Ponsor

Michael Adrian Ponsor (born August 13, 1946) is an American judge and writer. He is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, having been confirmed to the federal bench in 1994 and taking senior status in 2011. He serves in the court's western region, in the city of Springfield.

Education Ponsor graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969, and received a Rhodes Scholarship, studying at Pembroke College, Oxford, from which he obtained a Master of Arts degree in 1971. He graduated from Yale Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1975.

From 2000–2001, Ponsor presided over the trial of Kristen Gilbert, the first death penalty case in Massachusetts in a half-century. Gilbert was convicted but was spared a death sentence by the jury.

In 2024, Ponsor wrote an op-ed in The New York Times criticizing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for an upside-down American flag and a Pine Tree Flag that flew outside of his residences, both of which were associated with the attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. Republican activist and lawyer Mike Davis filed a complaint about the column, and Chief Judge Albert Diaz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit concluded that Ponsor's column violated the federal judiciary's conduct code. The complaint was resolved when Ponsor apologized for the column. The controversy's handling drew additional criticism: Robert Minkoff, vice president of the New York County Lawyers' Association, said that while it was inadvisable for judges to engage in public conflict, Ponsor should not have been compelled to apologize for expressing his views, especially as Alito, as a Supreme Court justice, was not bound to the same code of conduct and was permitted to freely comment on the matter.

Novels Ponsor has written a trilogy of legal thrillers about a fictional federal judge named David S. Norcross. In an interview, Ponsor said he had aspired to be a novelist in his early years.

Point of Order A third Judge Norcross story, Point of Order, was published in 2024.