Lee Philip Rudofsky (born 1979) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Biography

Rudofsky received a Bachelor of Science and a

Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

from Cornell University, 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 ...

. After law school, Rudofsky served as a law clerk to Justice

Robert J. Cordy Robert J. Cordy (born May 18, 1949) is a former Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court who served from 2001 to 2016. Biography Cordy graduated from Dartmouth College in 1971 and Harvard Law School in 1974. After graduation, ...

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 ...

and to Judge Andrew Kleinfeld of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He then became an associate at Kirkland & Ellis, before serving as Deputy General Counsel to the Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign. In 2015, Rudofsky became Solicitor General of Arkansas, and he left that post in 2018 to become senior director for global anti-corruption compliance at Walmart. Rudofsky is Jewish.

Federal judicial service

On July 1, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Rudofsky to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Rudofsky was nominated to the seat vacated by Judge James Leon Holmes, who assumed senior status on March 31, 2018. On July 8, 2019, his nomination was sent to the United States Senate. Senator Tom Cotton recommended his nomination. On July 31, 2019, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On October 17, 2019, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On November 6, 2019, the Senate voted 51–41 to invoke cloture on his nomination. On November 7, 2019, his nomination was confirmed by a 51–41 vote. He received his judicial commission on November 8, 2019.

Notable cases

In 2022, Rudofsky held that American citizens could not bring suit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, instead concluding that provision could only be enforced by lawsuits filed directly by the

Attorney General of the United States The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...

. His decision was widely criticized by legal commentators as standing in opposition to decades of Supreme Court precedent which had permitted private enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, effectively "gutting" the VRA and rendering it "largely unenforceable".

Memberships

He has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2002.United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees: Lee Rudofsky
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References

External links