Naomi Reice Buchwald

Naomi Reice Buchwald
United States federal judge
Incumbent
Assumed office September 22, 1999
Nominated by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Miriam G. Cedarbaum
United States magistrate judge
In office 1994 – September 22, 1999
Personal details
Alma mater	Brandeis University B.A. Columbia Law School LL.B.

Naomi Reice Buchwald (born 1944) is a United States federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Background

Judge Buchwald was born in Kingston, New York, received a B.A. from Brandeis University in 1965 and an LL.B. from Columbia Law School in 1968. After law school, Buchwald practiced law in New York until 1973, when she become an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, rising to the position of Chief of the Civil Division. She held this position until being named a magistrate judge in the same district in 1980. She served as Chief Magistrate from 1994 until 1999.

On February 12, 1999, Buchwald was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Miriam G. Cedarbaum. Buchwald was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 13, 1999, and received her commission on September 22, 1999.

She is married to criminal defense attorney Don Buchwald, also a former Assistant United States Attorney, and has two grown children.

Controversial Remarks About Sarah Palin

On February 5, 2009, the New York Daily News reported that, while presiding over a case involving an autistic boy, Judge Buchwald made a remark about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Down's Syndrome child, Trig, saying, "That kid was used as a prop, and that to me as a parent blew my mind."^[1] Judge Buchwald would later backtrack from her comments.

SEC v. Dorozhko

In a 2008 civil case for insider trading, Judge Buchwald ordered^[2] the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to unfreeze the ill-gotten profits of Ukrainian resident Oleksandr Dorozhko. Dorozhko was accused of hacking into a company database to access a then-unreleased earnings announcement. Based upon the undisclosed information, Dorozhko invested $41,671 in put options, which he sold the following day for $328,571. The SEC froze the profits, but the Judge ruled against the SEC, finding that while Dorozhko's conduct almost certainly was criminal, it did not fall within the relevant civil statute. Judge Buchwald stayed her order pending appeal.

In a highly deferential opinion,^[3] the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the Judge's ruling. When Dorozhko later stopped participating in his defense, Judge Buchwald granted the SEC summary judgement and ordered Dorozhko to pay nearly $580,000 in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty.^[4] It was later reported that the S.E.C. managed to seize about half of this amount.^[5]

Sources

1. ^ "Judge in autism case injects insult to Sarah Palin" by Thomas Zambito, New York Daily News, updated February 6th 2009, 9:46 AM. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
2. ^ SEC v. Dorozhko, 606 F. Supp. 2d 321 (S.D.N.Y. 2008). Retrieved 2010-10-27.
3. ^ SEC v. Dorozhko, 574 F.3d 42 (2d Cir. 2009). Retrieved 2010-10-27.
4. ^ SEC v. Dorozhko (S.D.N.Y. 2010). Retrieved 2010-10-27.
5. ^ "Common Sense and Insider Trading" by Floyd Norris, The New York Times blog, March 29, 2010, 6:50 pm. Retrieved 2010-03-30.

• Naomi Reice Buchwald at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

Persondata
Name	Buchwald, Naomi Reice
Alternative names
Short description	United States federal judge
Date of birth	1944
Place of birth	Kingston, New York
Date of death
Place of death