Matthew Frederick Leitman (born August 2, 1968) is a
United States district judge
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...
of the
.
Biography
Leitman was born on August 2, 1968, in
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
. He 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 year ...
summa cum laude, in 1990 from the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. He received a
Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, in 1993 from
Harvard Law School. He served as a
law clerk to Justice
Charles L. Levin of the
Michigan Supreme Court
The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the sta ...
from 1993 to 1994. From 1994 to 2004, he worked at the law firm of Miro Weiner & Kramer P.C. in
Bloomfield Hills
Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern border with the city of Bir ...
, Michigan. From 2004 until his move to the federal bench, he served as a principal at the law firm of
Miller Canfield P.L.C. in
Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
, Michigan, where he handled complex commercial litigation, criminal defense, and appellate matters before both state and federal courts.
Federal judicial service
On July 25, 2013, President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
nominated Leitman to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, to the seat vacated by Judge
Marianne Battani, who assumed
senior status
Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...
on June 10, 2012.
On January 16, 2014, his nomination was reported out of committee by a
voice vote
In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...
. On March 11, 2014, the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
invoked cloture on his nomination by a 55–43 vote. On March 12, 2014, his nomination was confirmed by a 98–0 vote. He received his judicial commission on March 14, 2014.
John Conyers ballot qualification dispute
On May 23, 2014, Leitman ruled that Congressman
John Conyers (D-MI 13th) could remain on the election ballot despite a dispute over the validity of signatures on his nominating petition. Michigan election law requires at least 1,000 signatures of registered voters for a candidate to be included on a ballot; Conyers submitted 2,000 signatures, but most were ruled invalid by a county judge on the grounds that they were not collected by registered voters as required by law. The constitutionality of this signature-gathering requirement was challenged in a lawsuit by the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
, and Leitman issued an injunction ordering that Conyers be put back on the ballot, finding that plaintiffs "have shown a substantial likelihood of success" and "time is of the essence".
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leitman, Matthew F.
1968 births
Living people
21st-century American judges
Harvard Law School alumni
Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Lawyers from Detroit
United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama
University of Michigan alumni