Harvard Law School Professor David J. Barron ’94, an expert in administrative law and the separation of powers, was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit by President Barack Obama ’91 on Tuesday.
President Obama said in a White House press release: “David Jeremiah Barron has displayed exceptional dedication to the legal profession through his work, and I am honored to nominate him to serve the American people as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals. He will be a diligent, judicious, and esteemed addition to the First Circuit bench.”
HLS Dean Martha Minow commented on Barron’s appointment in today’s edition of The Harvard Crimson, stating: “David Barron is a superb lawyer with deep experiences in federal, state, and local government. He will be an outstanding judge as he has great judgment as well as wide expertise. He is such a valued member of our community, but for the greater good, I hope the Senate promptly confirms his nomination.”
Barron joined the Harvard Law School faculty as an assistant professor in 1999 and was named a professor in 2004. In 2009, he went on leave from his faculty position, serving as Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel, where he had a leading role in reviewing and writing legal policy about the conflict with Al Qaeda and on domestic issues like how the TARP bailout fund should be used. For his service, he received the National Intelligence Exceptional Achievement Medal from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service.
Barron returned to the Harvard Law School faculty in 2010 and, the following year, he was named The Honorable S. William Green Professor of Public Law. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick ’82 appointed Barron to the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education and the Massachusetts State College Building Authority in 2012.
Barron received his B.A. from Harvard College in 1989 and J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1994. He served on the Harvard Law Review and after graduating from HLS, he clerked for Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and later for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Barron worked as an attorney-adviser in the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel from 1996 to 1999.
In addition to numerous scholarly articles, Barron is the co-author of a leading casebook, “Local Government Law” (4th edition, 2006), and of “City Bound: How States Stifle Urban Innovation”(Cornell 2008) with Professor Gerald Frug.