John George Koeltl (; born October 25, 1945) is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a United States district court, federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York (state), New York ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Education

Koeltl was born in

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. He graduated from Regis High School in New York City in 1963. He studied

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, receiving an Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1967. In 1971 he obtained his

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 ...

, where he was an editor of the ''

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...

''. He served as a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

for Judge

Edward Weinfeld Edward Weinfeld (May 14, 1901 – January 17, 1988) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education and career Born on May 14, 1901, in New York City, New York, Weinfeld r ...

of the Southern District of New York and then for Justice

Potter Stewart Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915 – December 7, 1985) was an American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981. During his tenure, he made major contributions to, among other areas, ...

of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

Legal career

From 1973 to 1974, Koeltl served as an assistant special prosecutor for the

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...

Special Prosecution Force, then entered private law practice in New York. For several years, Koeltl was a partner at the New York law firm of

Debevoise & Plimpton Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (often shortened to Debevoise) is an international law firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1931 by Harvard Law School alumnus Eli Whitney Debevoise and Oxford-trained William Stevenson, the firm was origi ...

. During these years, Koeltl served on several committees of the

Association of the Bar of the City of New York The New York City Bar Association (City Bar), founded in 1870, is a voluntary association of lawyers and law students. Since 1896, the organization, formally known as the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, has been headquartered in a ...

and

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...

and was the author of several published articles on securities law and other topics.

Federal judicial service

Koeltl was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

on April 26, 1994, to a seat vacated by Judge Shirley Wohl Kram. He was confirmed by the Senate on August 9, 1994, and commissioned on August 10, 1994. Judge Koeltl is the assigned judge for the trial case of Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed, co-founders of

BitMEX BitMEX is a cryptocurrency exchange and derivative trading platform. It is owned and operated by HDR Global Trading Limited, which is registered in the Seychelles. History BitMEX was founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed, w ...

. The trial date is set for March 28, 2022, in New York.

Notable decisions

Koeltl is known for his October 2006 decision to sentence civil rights lawyer

Lynne Stewart Lynne Irene Stewart (October 8, 1939 – March 7, 2017) was an American defense attorney who was known for representing controversial, famous defendants. She herself was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terro ...

to 28 months in prison for providing material assistance to a terrorist, her client, 1993

World Trade Center bombing The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the complex. The urea nitrate–hydrogen gas en ...

mastermind

Omar Abdel-Rahman Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman ( ar, عمر عبد الرحمن), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptians, Egyptian Islamist militant who served a ...

, by secretly passing messages to his radical followers in Egypt. Koeltl rejected the prosecutors' recommendation of 30 years. The

Second Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...

ordered Koeltl to reconsider whether that sentence was too light and to take into account the government's arguments that she had committed perjury at her trial and abused her position as a lawyer. On remand, Koeltl cited remarks Stewart had made after being sentenced that indicated a lack of remorse. He changed the sentence to 10 years in prison. In 2011, he presided over the case involving Raffaello Follieri, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud and money laundering in connection with purchases of property from the Catholic Church. The Follieri case received significant media scrutiny due to his relationship with celebrities, notably

Anne Hathaway Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Anne Hathaway, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Awar ...

and several politicians, including former president

and 2008 Republican presidential nominee

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

. Koeltl also presided over a case brought by Citigroup against Wells Fargo to halt the latter's purchase of Wachovia, which Citi had earlier announced plans to purchase. The litigation settled in 2010. A U.S. appeals court, in an opinion written by Koeltl, tossed out a $654 million jury verdict against the Palestine Liberation Organization for terrorist attacks in the early 2000s in Israel that killed or wounded Americans, saying the U.S. courts lack jurisdiction because the attacks were random and not aimed at the United States. In April 2018 Koeltl was assigned to preside over a civil

lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

filed by the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the governing body of the United States Democratic Party. The committee coordinates strategy to support Democratic Party candidates throughout the country for local, state, and national office, as well a ...

against the

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, the

Donald Trump presidential campaign There have been four Political campaign, presidential campaigns waged by Donald Trump for President of the United States. He has additionally mused about running on several other occasions. Donald Trump presidential campaign may refer to: * Donal ...

, and several individuals. The suit alleges that

Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. Acc ...

harmed Democrats. Koeltl, in dismissing the suit in July 2019, described WikiLeaks' publishing activities as "plainly of the type entitled to the strongest protection that the First Amendment offers." In September 2020 Koeltl presided over Sam Party v. Kosinski in which the Serve America Party sued Todd D. Valentine and Robert A. Brehm, the Co-Execute Directors of the New York State Board of Elections, and Peter S. Kosinski, Douglas A. Kellner, and Andrew J. Spano, the Commissioners of the New York State Board of Elections (NYSBOE). The Serve America Movement (SAM) was added to Qualified New York political parties after it attained the required number of votes in the 2018 election for Governor of New York. NYSBOE changed New York State Election Law after the election, to increase the minimum requirement from 50,000 votes to 2% or about 130,000 votes. SAM alleged that the rule change violated the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association, and the equal protection and due process protections of the Fourteenth Amendment of the SAM Party and its supporters. In May 2021 Koeltl presided over Libertarian Party of N.Y. v. N.Y. Bd. of Elections in which the

Libertarian Party of New York The Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY) (also known as the Free Libertarian Party of New York), is the affiliate of the Libertarian Party in the U.S. state of New York. Due to changes in New York State election law in 2020, the Libertarian Party ...

and the

Green Party of New York The Green Party of New York is the affiliate of the Green Party of the United States in the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1992 and is a part of the Green Party movement. The Party has had ballot access at various points in its histo ...

sued the New York State Board of Elections, its chairs, commissioners, and executive directors. The Libertarian Party and Green Party were added to Qualified New York political parties after they attained the required number of votes in the 2018 election for Governor of New York. After the NYSBOE rule change, the plaintiffs alleged that the amendments to the New York Election Law found in Sections 9 and 10 of Part ZZZ of the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year New York State Budget Bill ("Part ZZZ"), violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of both parties. District Judge John G. Koeltl denied the request.Casetext (13 May 2021
Libertarian Party of N.Y. v. N.Y. Bd. of Elections
/ref> As a result of Koeltl's decision on both the Serve America Movement lawsuit and the Libertarian Party lawsuit, the Libertarian Party, Serve America Movement, Green Party, and

Independence Party of New York The Independence Party is a political party in the U.S. state of New York. The party was founded in 1991 by Dr. Gordon Black, Tom Golisano, and Laureen Oliver from Rochester, New York, and acquired ballot status in 1994. They lost their ballot ...

have had their ballot access removal upheld in the State of New York.

References

Sources