Barbara A. Lenk (born December 2, 1950) is an American attorney and jurist who served as an associate justice of the

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the court of last resort, highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the di ...

. On April 4, 2011, Massachusetts Governor

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who ...

nominated her to that position and she was confirmed by the

Governor's Council The governments of the Thirteen Colonies of British America developed in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of the Constitution of the United Kingdom, British constitution. After the Thirteen Colonies had become the United States, the e ...

on May 4, 2011. She took the oath of office on June 8, 2011.

Early life and education

Justice Lenk was born in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, New York. Her parents were a bookbinder and a housekeeper. Her first language was Polish. She received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

''magna cum laude'' from

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

in 1972, a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

in political philosophy from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1978, and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1979.

Career

Upon graduation from law school, she joined the Boston law firm of Brown, Rudnick, Freed & Gesmer and was a partner there for six years. Her practice focused on civil litigation, with a specialty in

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

issues.

Judicial service

In 1993, Massachusetts Governor

Bill Weld William Floyd Weld (born July 31, 1945) is an American attorney, businessman, author, and politician who served as the 68th Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997. A Harvard and Oxford graduate, Weld began his career as legal counsel to ...

, a Republican, named her to the state's

Superior Court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...

. She served there until Weld appointed her to the

Appeals Court A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

, where she began her service on June 20, 1995. When nominated to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court, Justice Lenk was the longest serving member of the Appeals Court.

Legal Challenge to Pledge of Allegiance

In May 2014, the Supreme Judicial Court unanimously rejected a legal challenge to a Massachusetts law requiring the recitation of the

Pledge of Allegiance The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is a patriotic recited verse that promises allegiance to the flag of the United States and the republic of the United States of America. The first version, with a text different from the one used ...

in schools. The court ruled that the inclusion of the words "under God" did not violate the rights of

atheists Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

because, in the court's view, reciting the pledge "is a fundamentally patriotic exercise, not a religious one." In a separate

concurring opinion In law, a concurring opinion is in certain legal systems a written opinion by one or more judges of a court which agrees with the decision made by the majority of the court, but states different (or additional) reasons as the basis for their deci ...

, Lenk explained that she agreed with the outcome of the court's decision because the

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the p ...

s challenging the state law "did not successfully allege that their children receive negative treatment" as a result of their decision not to recite the words "under God," or that their children had been reduced to "

second-class citizen A second-class citizen is a person who is systematically and actively discriminated against within a state or other political jurisdiction, despite their nominal status as a citizen or a legal resident there. While not necessarily slaves, ...

[]" status because of their beliefs. However, Lenk also wrote that "should future plaintiffs demonstrate that the distinction created by the pledge as currently written has engendered bullying or differential treatment, I would leave open the possibility that the equal rights amendment

Massachusetts state constitution The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual state governments that make up the United States of America. As a member of the Massachuset ...

] might provide a remedy.”

Other Notable Cases

In 2017, Justice Lenk found that the federal Stored Communications Act did not prevent the

personal representative In common law jurisdictions, a personal representative or legal personal representative is a person appointed by a court to administer the estate of another person. If the estate being administered is that of a deceased person, the personal repres ...

s of a deceased person from accessing his emails. In July 2017, Lenk reported to the court the case in which it unanimously held that the commonwealth's law enforcement could not hold a prisoner solely on the authority of a

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

detainer.

Retirement

Lenk announced her retirement from the court, initially effective August 17, 2020, but she later delayed her retirement to December 1, 2020, one day before she turned 70. During Lenk's last week sitting for oral arguments, fellow Justice

Frank Gaziano Frank M. Gaziano (born September 8, 1963) is an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Early life and education Born in Quincy, Massachusetts, Gaziano received his Bachelor of Arts from Lafayette College in 1986 and his J ...

praised her for her "intellectual honesty" and for being "faithful to the law," saying that "Justice Lenk's contributions are impactful and will be long remembered."

Personal life

Justice Lenk has served on the board of directors of the Volunteer Lawyers Project of the

Boston Bar Association The Boston Bar Association (BBA) is a volunteer non-governmental organization in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. With headquarters located at 16 Beacon Street in the historic Chester Harding House, across from the Massachusetts State House ...

, as chair of the Board of Editors of the Boston Bar Journal, and as a member of the Judicial Administration Council of the

Massachusetts Bar Association The Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA) is a voluntary, non-profit bar association in Massachusetts with a headquarters on West Street in Boston's Downtown Crossing. The MBA also has a Western Massachusetts office. The purpose of the MBA is t ...

. She is a Trustee of

Western New England University Western New England University is a private university in Springfield, Massachusetts. Academic programs are provided through its College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business, College of Engineering, School of Law, and College of Pharmacy and ...

, where she chairs the academic affairs committee, and a member of the Boston

Inn of Court The Inns of Court in London are the professional associations for barristers in England and Wales. There are four Inns of Court – Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. All barristers must belong to one of them. They ha ...

. Lenk serves on the board of directors for Kerem Shalom in

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...

. Lenk is a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

. She married her wife, attorney Debra Krupp, following the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts in 2004. They have two adopted children. She is the first openly gay member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenk, Barbara A. 1950 births 20th-century American women judges 20th-century American judges 21st-century American women judges 21st-century American judges American people of Polish-Jewish descent Fordham University alumni Harvard Law School alumni LGBT appointed officials in the United States LGBT judges American LGBT lawyers Living people Massachusetts Superior Court justices Judges of the Massachusetts Appeals Court Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Lawyers from Queens, New York Yale University alumni 21st-century American LGBT people