Amir Ali (judge)

Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali (born 1985)^[1] is a Canadian-American lawyer and academic who is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.^[2] Ali previously served as civil rights lawyer and law professor at Harvard Law School.^[3]

Amir Ali
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Incumbent
Assumed office November 22, 2024
Appointed by	Joe Biden
Preceded by	Beryl Howell
Personal details
Born	Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali 1985 (age 39–40) Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Education	University of Waterloo (BSE) Harvard University (JD)

Early life and education

Ali was born to Egyptian-Canadian parents in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.^[4] He received a Bachelor of Software Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, in 2008 and a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2011.^[5]

Early career

After graduating, Ali served as a law clerk for Judge Raymond C. Fisher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2011 to 2012 and for Justice Marshall Rothstein of the Supreme Court of Canada from 2012 to 2013.^[6] From 2013 to 2017, Ali practiced at the law firm Jenner & Block.^[7] He also argued and won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court as a fifth-year associate.^[8] From 2021 to 2024, Ali was the executive director of the MacArthur Justice Center,^[9][10] a nonprofit law firm founded by businessman and philanthropist J. Roderick MacArthur. Since 2018, Ali has been a professor at Harvard Law School, where he directs the school's criminal justice appellate clinic.^[9][6] Ali has also been an adjunct professor of litigation and constitutional law at the University of District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law and Georgetown University Law Center.^[11][12] He served on the Appellate Project's board of directors.^[13][14]

Notable cases as an attorney

In 2016, as a 30-year-old junior associate, Ali argued his first case before the Supreme Court for the petitioner in Welch v. United States.^[15] He obtained an 7–1 majority opinion that the Supreme Court's determination in Johnson v. United States, which found the Residual Clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act was unconstitutionally vague, constituted a substantive rule change and was therefore retroactive.^[16][17][18] The Welch decision had a dramatic impact on access to habeas corpus in federal court, increasing cases against the United States by 55% according to the end-year report of the Chief Justice of the United States.^[19]

In 2017, Ali moved to the MacArthur Justice Center, a civil rights litigation firm.^[20] The next year, Ali represented Louisiana prisoner Corey Williams before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Williams v. Louisiana.^[21] Williams had been wrongfully convicted of capital murder in 1998 at the age of 16 and spent over 20 years at Angola Penitentiary.^[21] Ali filed a certiorari petition on Williams' behalf and convened a bipartisan group of more than 40 former high-level Justice Department and law enforcement officials to advocate for Williams release.^[21][3] In response, the district attorney agreed to immediately release Williams.^[22]

In 2019, Ali argued again before the U.S. Supreme Court for the petitioner in Garza v. Idaho, and obtained a 6–3 majority opinion that expanded the right to a lawyer.^[3] Specifically, the decision established that a criminal defendant has the constitutional right to an appeal that has been forfeited by his attorney even if the defendant's plea agreement states that it waives the right to appeal.^[23][24][25]

In 2022, Ali argued before the U.S. Supreme Court for the petitioner in Thompson v. Clark, and obtained a 6–3 majority opinion by Justice Brett Kavanaugh recognizing a federal cause of action against police officers who pursue false charges against someone.^[26][27][28]

Federal judicial service

On January 10, 2024, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Ali to serve as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.^[5] On February 1, Biden nominated Ali to a seat vacated by Judge Beryl Howell, who assumed senior status.^[29] On February 8, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.^[30] In advance of the hearing, Ali received letters of support from prosecutors, the Cato Institute, as well as civil rights and law enforcement organizations.^[31][32] During his hearing, Senator Lindsey Graham questioned Ali about his leadership of the MacArthur Center and comments that another staff member made on a podcast about "making police departments obsolete."^[3] Ali responded that the statement preceded his time as the organization's director and that he did not "believe law enforcement is or should be obsolete, or defunded."^[3][33] On March 7, Ali's nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–10 party-line vote.^[34] On November 20, the United States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 50–48 vote.^[35] Later that day, his nomination was confirmed by a 50–49 vote, with all Democratic Senators and Independent Senator Joe Manchin voting yes.^[36][37] Ali received his judicial commission on November 22, 2024.^[38] Ali became the first Muslim and Arab American federal judge to serve in D.C.^[39][40][41]

Notable rulings

On February 13, 2025, Ali issued a temporary restraining order on Executive Order 14169, which would have ordered cuts in funding for foreign assistance programs governed by USAID and the U.S. Department of State.^[42][43] The order issued halted the government from restricting foreign aid and assistance that was already in place before President Donald Trump took office, without fully enjoining the executive order itself.^[44] According to Ali's judicial opinion, agency officials violated the Administrative Procedure Act because no explanation had been provided for the blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid which "set off a shock wave" for business and aid organizations across the country.^{[3][45][46][47]} Ali issued a deadline of February 18 for the Government to inform the court of its "status of compliance".^[48][49] After such payments failed to resume and an appropriate response was not provided, the plaintiffs "asked Ali for an emergency order holding the government in contempt" and for "immediate payment of all the money they and other foreign-aid partners were owed."^[3] Ali held a hearing, at which he asked the Administration what steps it had taken to release funds in compliance with his earlier order and Department of Justice attorney Indraneel Sur responded: "I'm not in a position to answer that."^[50] Ali ordered all aid issued before the temporary restraining order to be paid by February 26.^[51][52] Ali rejected the Trump administration's requests to extend the deadline. The administration appealed Ali's court order to both the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for it to be put on hold.^[53][54][55] The Circuit Court upheld Ali's order. The Supreme Court issued a temporary administrative stay, placing Ali's order on hold while it considered the case and allowing Trump's executive order to remain in effect.^[56][57] But on March 5, 2025, the Supreme Court vacated its administrative stay and left Ali's order in effect.^[58] Because Ali's earlier deadline had expired while the Supreme Court considered the case, the Supreme Court left it to Ali to "clarify what obligations the Government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order."^[58] According to Georgetown Professor Steve Vladeck, Ali's temporary restraining order is the only one the Supreme Court upheld in the first six months of the Trump Administration.^[59]

On March 6, Judge Ali ruled that USAID must pay for nonprofits' and businesses' completed work by March 10, following instructions by the Supreme Court to further clarify what actions the government must take to provide for the release of funds.^[60][61][62]