Robert Katzmann

Robert Allen Katzmann (April 22, 1953 – June 9, 2021) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He served as chief judge from September 1, 2013, to August 31, 2020.

Robert Allen Katzmann was born April 22, 1953, in New York City, the son of Sylvia, a homemaker, and John Katzmann, an engineer. Katzmann received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1973. He received a Master of Arts from Harvard University in 1976 and received a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1978. He received a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1980, where he was an article and book review editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Katzmann served as a law clerk to Judge Hugh H. Bownes of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit from 1980 to 1981. He was a fellow at the Brookings Institution from 1981 to 1999. He was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center from 1984 to 1989. He was an adjunct professor with the Georgetown University Public Policy Program from 1987 to 1992. Katzmann was president of the Governance Institute from 1986 to 1999. He was a special assistant to the director of the Federal Judicial Center from 1986 to 1988. He was a visiting professor of the University of California, Los Angeles (Washington, D.C., program), from 1990 to 1992. He was the Wayne Morse Chair in law and politics at the University of Oregon in 1992. He was acting program director at the Brookings Institution in 1998. Katzmann was the Walsh Professor of Government, professor of law and professor of public policy at Georgetown University from 1992 to 1999. His brother, Gary Katzmann, is a judge of the United States Court of International Trade.

Katzmann was nominated by President Bill Clinton on March 8, 1999, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated by Judge Jon O. Newman. He was confirmed by the United States Senate by voice vote on July 14, 1999, and received his commission on July 16, 1999. He served as chief judge from September 1, 2013, to August 31, 2020. By appointment of Chief Justice John Roberts, Katzmann has served as chair of the U.S. Judicial Conference Committee on the Judicial Branch, as a member of the U.S. Judicial Conference Executive Committee, and as chair of the Supreme Court Fellows Commission. On January 21, 2021, Katzmann assumed senior status. Katzmann is the first federal judge to hold a doctorate in government.

In Watson v. United States (2017), Katzmann in dissent decried the government's wrongful detention of a U.S. citizen for 1,273 days, arguing that Watson should be entitled to sue the government for damages.

In August 2017, Katzmann upheld the insider trading conviction of Mathew Martoma, over the dissent of Judge Pooler, who argued that the majority was improperly overruling circuit precedent. In June 2018, Katzmann issued an amended opinion reaching the same result, again over the dissent of Pooler.

In a landmark Second Circuit ruling, Zarda v Altitude Express (2018) Judge Katzmann, writing for the full court in a 10–3 decision, held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. That decision was later affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the consolidated case of Bostock v. Clayton County.

In Corren v. Condos (2018), Judge Katzmann upheld Vermont's public financing campaign laws against First Amendment challenges.