Judith Ellen Levy


Judith Ellen Levy is an American lawyer who serves as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Biography

Levy was born in 1958 in Bloomington, Indiana. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1981 from the University of Michigan. She received a Juris Doctor, cum laude, in 1996 from the University of Michigan Law School.
Levy is openly gay and has three daughters.

Career

Prior to her attendance at law school, Levy worked at the University of Michigan Hospital and served as the bargaining chairperson for Local 1583 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees for six years. From 1996 to 1999, she worked as a law clerk to Judge Bernard A. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. From 1999 to 2000, she was a trial attorney for the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. From 2000 to 2014, Levy served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan, and was Chief of the Civil Rights Unit in 2010–2014.

Judicial service

On July 25, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Levy to serve as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, to the seat vacated by Judge Nancy Garlock Edmunds, who took senior status on August 1, 2012. On January 16, 2014, her nomination was reported out of committee. A cloture vote on her nomination was held March 11, 2014, and passed by 56–42. On Wednesday, March 12, 2014, the full U.S. Senate voted 97–0 for final confirmation. She received her judicial commission on March 14, 2014.