Brian E. Murphy

Brian E. Murphy
Murphy in 2024
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Incumbent
Assumed office
December 6, 2024
Appointed byJoe Biden
Preceded byPatti B. Saris
Personal details
Born
Brian Edward Murphy[1]

1979 (age 45–46)
Columbia, Maryland, U.S.
EducationCollege of the Holy Cross (BA)
Columbia University (JD)

Brian Edward Murphy (born 1979)[2] is an American lawyer who is serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Early life and education

Murphy was born in Columbia, Maryland.[3] He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the College of the Holy Cross in 2002 and a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 2006.[4] While in law school, he attended as a James Kent Scholar, a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and was editor-in-chief of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review.[5]

Career

From 2006 to 2009, Murphy was a public defender at the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services. From 2009 to 2011, he was an associate attorney at Todd and Weld LLP. From 2011 to 2024, he was the partner at Murphy & Rudolf LLP; from 2012 to 2016 the firm was known as Murphy & Vander Salm LLP. From 2015 to 2019, Murphy also served as a supervising attorney for the Worcester County Bar Advocates.[4]

Federal judicial service

On March 20, 2024, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Murphy to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.[4] Murphy was recommended to the White House by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey.[3] On March 21, 2024, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Murphy to the seat being vacated by Judge Patti B. Saris, who announced her intent to assume senior status upon confirmation of a successor.[1] On April 17, 2024, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[6] On May 9, 2024, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–10 party-line vote.[7] On November 20, 2024, the United States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 50–49 vote.[8] On December 2, 2024, his nomination was confirmed by a 47–45 vote.[9] He received his judicial commission on December 6, 2024.[10]

Notable cases

On March 28, 2025, during the proceedings for D.V.D. v. Department of Homeland Security,[11] Murphy temporarily blocked the Department of Homeland Security from deporting people to "third countries", or countries other than the one they came from.[12][13] In April, he said that if the United States were to decide to deport anyone to a third country, it should first give the person a 15-day window to contest that decision.[14]

On May 20, 2025, the Trump administration was flying eight criminal migrants out of the United States to be deported to South Sudan, with less than a day's notice, when one of the migrant's lawyers requested for Murphy to intervene.[15] Murphy held hearings, trying to find out what was happening, while the Trump administration initially declined to inform him of the plane's location as it was "classified".[15] The Trump administration changed its plan, instead detaining the migrants in Camp Lemonnier, a U.S. military base in Djibouti.[15] On May 21, Murphy ruled that the Trump administration violated his court order with their "hurried and confused" notice to the migrants before attempting to deport them to South Sudan, which the American government had discouraged travel to due to "crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict".[14][16]

Murphy then ruled with possible courses of actions to the Trump administration to take, including detaining the migrants in the United States, or detaining them outside of the United States while arranging interviews for them regarding deportation.[15][17] The Trump administration continued to detain the migrants in Djibouti, while objecting to Murphy's ruling, to which Murphy responded that the Trump administration had "asked" for this "result", and was "manufacturing the very chaos they decry", with Murphy saying he acquiesced to the Trump administration's "suggestion that they be allowed to keep the [migrants] out of the [United States] and finish their process abroad".[17][18]

On July 3, 2025, the US Supreme Court in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D., granted the government's request for an emergency stay of the court orders pending the Circuit Court's and its own review by a vote of 7-2. The court added a rare note at the end of its ruling. If the Government wishes to seek additional relief in aid of the execution of our mandate, it may do so through mandamus.[19][20] In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote:

This Court now intervenes to grant the Government emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied. I cannot join so gross an abuse of the Court’s equitable discretion...each time this Court rewards noncompliance with discretionary relief, it further erodes respect for courts and for the rule of law.

References

  1. ^ a b "Nominations Sent to the Senate" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. March 21, 2024.
  2. ^ "Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
  3. ^ a b Cartolano, Marco (March 20, 2024). "Biden nominates Worcester attorney Brian Murphy to be federal judge in Mass". The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "President Biden Names Forty-Seventh Round of Judicial Nominees and Announces One New Nominee to Serve as U.S. Marshal" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: The White House. March 20, 2024. Retrieved March 20, 2024. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  5. ^ "Brian E. Murphy Profile | Worcester, MA Lawyer | Martindale.com". www.martindale.com. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  6. ^ "Nominations". Washington, D.C.: United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. April 16, 2024.
  7. ^ "Senate Judiciary Committee Advances the Protecting Older Americans Act, Four Judicial Nominations to the Full Senate" (Press release). United States Senate Judiciary Committee. May 9, 2024. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
  8. ^ "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture: Brian Edward Murphy to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts)". United States Senate. November 20, 2024. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
  9. ^ "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Brian Edward Murphy, of Massachusetts, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts)". United States Senate. December 2, 2024. Retrieved December 2, 2024.
  10. ^ Brian E. Murphy at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
  11. ^ https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-dis-crt-d-mas/117186633.html#footnote_ref_10
  12. ^ "US Judge temporarily halts deportations to third countries without a chance to challenge". Associated Press. March 28, 2025. Retrieved March 30, 2025.
  13. ^ "Trump administration acknowledges another error in a high-profile deportation". Apple News. May 16, 2025. Retrieved May 17, 2025.
  14. ^ a b Boboltz, Sara (2025-05-21). "Trump Administration 'Unquestionably' Violated Deportation Order, Judge Says". HuffPost. Retrieved 2025-05-22.
  15. ^ a b c d Schwartz, Mattathias; VanSickle, Abbie; Aleaziz, Hamed; Schmitt, Eric (June 6, 2025). "How the Trump Administration Banished Eight Men to Legal Limbo in Africa". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 6, 2025. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
  16. ^ Peterson, Beatrice; Date, Jack; Hill, James; El-Bawab, Nadine; Garcia, Armando (May 22, 2025). "Judge rules DHS violated court order in deporting 8 migrants to South Sudan". ABC News. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
  17. ^ a b Stein, Perry; Marimow, Ann (May 27, 2025). "Trump asks Supreme Court to intervene on South Sudan deportations". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 27, 2025. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
  18. ^ Woodward, Alex (May 27, 2025). "Trump rants at 'monster' judges, then one accuses WH of 'manufacturing chaos' in South Sudan deportations". The Independent. Retrieved June 10, 2025.
  19. ^ https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1153_2co3.pdf
  20. ^ Millhiser, Ian (23 June 2025). "The Supreme Court just stripped thousands of immigrants of their right to due process". Vox. Retrieved 4 July 2025.
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