COURT: SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
AGE: 51
CONFIRMED: JULY 2011
APPOINTED BY: OBAMA
Since he joined the Manhattan federal bench in July 2011, Paul Engelmayer’s docket has been bursting with typical New York City cases: lots of securities and white-collar crime, a touch of intellectual property, and a dash of civil rights. In perhaps his most significant decision, Engelmayer ruled the past July in favor of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which opposes a planned mosque and Islamic center near the World Trade Center. The initiative sued the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for refusing to post its advertisements which depicted radical Muslims as savages on the exteriors of New York City buses. Engelmayer said that while the MTA’s policy of prohibiting demeaning ads was well intentioned, the authority had violated the initiative’s right to free speech.
