Allison D. Burroughs

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Allison D. Burroughs

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| image = Allison Burroughs (cropped).png

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| office = Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts

| term_start = December 19, 2014

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| appointer = Barack Obama

| predecessor = Rya W. Zobel

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| birth_name = Allison Dale Burroughs

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1961|04|25}}

| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

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| education = Middlebury College (BA)
University of Pennsylvania (JD)

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Allison Dale Burroughs (born April 25, 1961) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

Biography

Burroughs was born in 1961 in Boston.{{cite web | url=http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Burroughs%20Senate%20Questionnaire%20Final.pdf | title=Senate Judiciary Committee Nomination Questionnaire}} She received a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Middlebury College. She received a Juris Doctor, cum laude, in 1988 from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge Norma Levy Shapiro of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1988 to 1989. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1989 to 1995 and in the District of Massachusetts from 1995 to 2005. From 2005 to 2014 she was a partner at Nutter McClennen & Fish where she represented individuals and corporations in criminal and civil proceedings primarily before Federal Courts.{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/31/president-obama-nominates-two-serve-united-states-district-courts|work=whitehouse.gov|title=President Obama Nominates Two to Serve on the United States District Courts|via=National Archives|date=31 July 2014}}{{FJC Bio|nid=1394736|inline=yes}}

Federal judicial service

On July 31, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Burroughs to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, to the seat vacated by Judge Rya W. Zobel, who assumed senior status on April 1, 2014.{{cite web|url=http://don411.com/the-white-house-nominations-sent-to-the-senate-allison-dale-burroughs-amit-priyavadan-mehta/#.U9sh6mPG_sV|title=THE WHITE HOUSE NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE: Allison Dale Burroughs, Amit Priyavadan Mehta, – Created by Don – In category: Human Interest – Tagged with: – Don411.com Media :: Performing Arts News Unabridged -|website=don411.com|date=August 2014}} She received a hearing before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on September 17, 2014.[http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/judicial-nominations-2014-09-17 "Judicial Nominations" United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary], September 17, 2014. On November 20, 2014, her nomination was reported out of committee by voice vote.{{cite web|url=http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Results%20of%20Executive%20Business%20Meeting%2011-20-14.pdf|title=Results of Executive Business Meeting – November 20, 2014 United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary|publisher=}} On December 13, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed a motion to invoke cloture on the nomination. On December 16, 2014, Reid withdrew his cloture motion on Burroughs' nomination, and the Senate proceeded to confirm Burroughs by a voice vote. She received her federal judicial commission on December 19, 2014, and was sworn in on January 7, 2015.{{cite web|url=http://www.mad.uscourts.gov/general/pdf/announce/010715%20Press%20Release%20-%20USDJ%20Allison%20Burroughs.pdf|title=Press Release|date=January 7, 2015|publisher=United States District Court: District of Massachusetts|access-date=January 22, 2019}}

=Notable cases=

Burroughs is most notable for her order putting a hold on President Donald Trump's travel ban in January 2017 (Executive Order 13769), and as the judge who presided over United States v. Salemme, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University, and United States v. Babich. Salemme was the last major trial of La Cosa Nostra mobsters. Francis Salemme (aka "Cadillac Frank") and co-defendant Paul Weadick were convicted of the murder of 43-year-old Steven A. DiSarro, who disappeared in May 1993. Salemme and Weadick were sentenced to life in prison in September 2018. In October 2018, Burroughs held a three-week bench trial in SFFA v. Harvard, a lawsuit challenging Harvard's admissions program as discriminatory against Asian Americans.{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/11/harvard-affirmative-action-trial-wraps-boston/574795/|title=The Stakes for the Harvard Trial Are Higher Now That It's Over|last=Harris|first=Adam|date=November 2, 2018|publisher=The Atlantic|access-date=January 22, 2019}} A decision in favor of the university was announced on October 1, 2019.{{Cite news |last=Hartocollis |first=Anemona |date=2019-10-01 |title=Harvard Does Not Discriminate Against Asian-Americans in Admissions, Judge Rules |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/us/harvard-admissions-lawsuit.html |access-date=2023-06-15 |issn=0362-4331}} United States v. Babich is a criminal case brought against several former executives of the pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics. The government alleged that the executives violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. 1692 et seq., by engaging in a scheme to sell the fentanyl-based pain medication Subsys by bribing physicians to prescribe the drug. The indictments led to guilty pleas, including by former Insys CEO Michael Babich. The remaining defendants were tried from January through April 2019.{{cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/victim-and-witness-assistance-program/united-states-v-michael-babich-alec-burlakoff-richard-simon-sunrise-lee-joseph-rowan-and|title=Press Release|date=January 17, 2019|publisher=United States Department of Justice|access-date=January 22, 2019}} All five remaining defendants, including former billionaire John Kapoor, were convicted of racketeering.

Burroughs also presided over a July 2020 lawsuit filed by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that sought to halt an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy that required international students in the United States on F-1 visas to depart the country if they would not be attending in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Judge Burroughs announced that the Trump administration had agreed to reverse the policy during a July 14, 2020 hearing in her Boston courtroom.{{cite web|url=https://www.https://www.wbur.org/edify/2020/07/14/ice-dhs-policy-international-students-leave-america-universities-pandemic|title=Gov't Rescinds Rule Barring Foreign Students From U.S. While Colleges Hold Classes Remotely|date=July 14, 2020|publisher=United States Department of Justice|access-date=July 20, 2020|archive-date=August 19, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130819141428/http://https/|url-status=dead}}

In December 2020, Burroughs presided over a lawsuit brought by five Republicans who lost state and federal legislative races in Massachusetts and sought to overturn the election results. Judge Burroughs stated during a December 2020 hearing that she viewed the lawsuit's requested relief of invalidating the votes of millions of Massachusetts resident as “too late,” “misplaced,” and “terribly unfair.” {{Cite web|url=http://www.bostonherald.com/2020/12/08/former-gop-candidates-sue-massachusetts-seeking-to-throw-out-millions-of-mail-in-early-ballots/amp/|title=Federal judge blasts Republican candidates' request to 'invalidate' Massachusetts election results|date=8 December 2020}}

Burroughs has also presided over several class actions related to consumer products. In re Intuniv Antitrust Litigation concerned allegedly anticompetitive agreements between drug makers Shire and Actavis purportedly aimed at charging supracompetitive prices for an ADHD medication.{{cite web|url=https://www.law360.com/articles/1109904/shire-must-cough-up-some-docs-in-pay-for-delay-suit|title=Shire Must Cough Up Some Docs In Pay-For-Delay Suit|date=December 10, 2018|publisher=Law 360|access-date=February 2, 2019}} Judge Burroughs' class certification opinions in the matter (one opinion certifying a class of direct purchasers, and another declining to certify a class of indirect, consumer purchasers) are notable for their application of the predominance required for class certification where putative classes contain numerous uninjured members.{{cite web|url=https://www.law360.com/articles/1240662|title=The Dollars And Sense Of Antitrust Class Certification: Part 1|date=February 5, 2020|publisher=Law 360|access-date=May 15, 2020}}

In class actions against Nestlé, The Hershey Company, and Mars Inc., Burroughs considered allegations that the companies violated Massachusetts product labeling laws by failing to disclose the use of slave child labour in cocoa production. Judge Burroughs dismissed the complaints against the chocolate bar companies in January 2019,{{cite court |litigants=Tomasella v. Nestlé USA, Inc.|vol=364|reporter=F. Supp. 3d|opinion=26|court=D. Mass|date=2019|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8409732695418209142|accessdate=}} a decision upheld by the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in June 2020.{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note|title=Recent Case: First Circuit Holds that Product Packages Need Not Disclose Labor Abuses|volume=134 |journal=Harv. L. Rev. |page=2257|url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/134-Harv.-L.-Rev.-2257.pdf|year=2021}}.{{cite web|url=https://www.law360.com/employment/articles/1123699/nestle-hershey-mars-get-child-labor-labeling-suit-tossed/|title=Nestle, Hershey, Mars Get Child Labor Labeling Suit Tossed|date=January 30, 2019|publisher=Law 360|access-date=February 2, 2019}} In September 2019, Burroughs also dismissed a class action suit that claimed the packaging of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal was misleading given the cereal's limited honey content.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=19181846-24e0-46f6-af57-2f9d291c4c4d|title = Court Isn't Sweet on Honey False Ad Suit|date = 10 September 2019}}

In a February 2020 decision, Burroughs ordered the release of certain grand jury materials related to the Pentagon Papers.{{cite web|url=https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/02/05/judge-oks-limited-release-of-pentagon-papers-case-records/|title=Judge OKs limited release of Pentagon Papers case records|date=February 4, 2020|publisher=Military Times|access-date=May 15, 2020}}