Richard Franklin Boulware II (born October 12, 1968) 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 District of Nevada and former assistant Federal Public Defender.
Biography
Boulware received an
Artium Baccalaureus
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 ...
degree, cum laude, in 1993 from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
and studied toward 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 Sociology from 1995–1998. He received 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 ...
in 2002 from
Columbia Law School.
From 2002 to 2003, 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 ...
to Judge
Denise Cote
Denise Louise Cote (born October 13, 1946) is a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Early life and education
Cote was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She received a Bache ...
of the
. From 2003 to 2007, he was a trial attorney in the
Federal Public Defender's Office
A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. He served in the Federal Public Defender's Office in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
from 2007 to 2014, serving as the lead attorney for complex white-collar cases from 2010 to 2014.
Federal judicial service
On January 16, 2014, 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 U ...
nominated Boulware to serve as a district judge of the
United States District Court for the District of Nevada to the seat vacated by Judge
Philip Martin Pro
Philip Martin Pro (born December 12, 1946) is a former United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. He is currently an arbitrator and mediator in private practice.
Educa ...
, who assumed
senior status
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...
on December 31, 2011. He received a hearing before the
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...
on March 12, 2014. On April 3, 2014, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 11–7 vote.
On June 5, 2014, Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid filed for
cloture on the nomination. On June 9, 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 by a 53–34 vote. On June 10, 2014, his nomination was confirmed by a 58–35 vote. He received his judicial commission the same day.
He was sworn in on June 12, 2014.
In 2015, Boulware began hearing a high profile
anti-trust
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust l ...
lawsuit against the
Ultimate Fighting Championship
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by Zuffa, a wholly owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. It is the largest MMA ...
filed by several of its former fighters. The fighters allege that the UFC "unlawfully
monopolized
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a spec ...
the market for
mixed martial arts
Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, inc ...
promotion by, among other things, locking up fighters with exclusive contracts and acquiring its rivals, leading to suppressed compensation for the fighters". The UFC is fighting the suit, alleging that it is "meritless." In September of 2020, Boulware indicated he was "likely" to grant class-action status to the suit.
In May 2022, he vacated
Margaret Rudin
Margaret Rudin (born Margaret Lee Frost; May 31, 1943) is an American woman convicted of the December 1994 murder of her husband, Las Vegas real estate magnate Ronald Rudin. She was incarcerated at Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center in No ...
’s murder conviction after she had spent 20 years in prison. Boulware ruled that Rudin received ineffective legal representation from her late defense attorney.
Nomination to United States Sentencing Commission
On September 9, 2015, President Obama nominated Boulware to a position on the
United States Sentencing Commission. He would have replaced former Commissioner
Ketanji Brown Jackson and his term would have expired October 31, 2019.
His nomination expired at the end of the
114th Congress
The 114th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from Ja ...
.
See also
*
List of African-American federal judges
*
List of African-American jurists
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boulware, Richard II
1968 births
Living people
21st-century American judges
African-American judges
Columbia Law School alumni
Harvard College alumni
Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada
New York (state) lawyers
Nevada lawyers
People from Rochester, Minnesota
Public defenders
United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama