Livingston Inducted as U.S. Circuit Court Judge

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James O’Neill

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November 8, 2007 (NEW YORK) – Columbia Law School professor Debra A. Livingston will be inducted as a United States Circuit Judge today by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

 

The event takes place in the Ninth Floor Ceremonial Courtroom of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse on Pearl Street in Manhattan.

 

Livingston was nominated by President Bush in January 2006 and was confirmed 91-0 in June 2007 by the U.S. Senate. In her statement before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she wrote that a federal judge’s duty is to enforce the Constitution when concluding that ``constitutional limits have been transgressed.’’ At the same time, she wrote, judges must not ``intrude beyond the limits of their authority, lest they undercut the work of the political branches and the democratic process itself.’’

 

Livingston, the Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law, joined Columbia Law School’s faculty in 1994. As a professor, she co-taught and developed an innovative course with Professor Harold Edgar in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The course, called ``National Security, Law Enforcement and Terrorism,’’ grew out of meetings Livingston and Edgar had with law enforcement officials who outlined the issues they faced after the terrorist attacks. Livingston was also co-director with Professor Jeffrey Fagan of Columbia Law School’s Center on Crime, Community and Law.

 

Livingston received her undergraduate degree from Princeton and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. From 1982 to 1983, she served as a legal consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok, Thailand. In 1984 to 1985, she clerked for the Honorable J. Edward Lumbard of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, then worked as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison for a year.

 

From 1986 to 1991, Livingston was an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York where she prosecuted public corruption cases and served as deputy chief of appeals.

 

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, stands at the forefront of legal education and of the law in a global society. Columbia Law School joins traditional strengths in international and comparative law, constitutional law, administrative law, business law and human rights law with pioneering work in the areas of intellectual property, digital technology, sexuality and gender, and criminal law.