Katherine Forrest

Katherine Forrest   (judge)
Born	Katherine Bolan Forrest February 13, 1964 New York City, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Wesleyan University, New York University
NY Judge in the cases 'U.S.A. v. Ulbricht', where she refused the defense attorney's efforts to get facts about corrupt DEA agents into the court record; and in 'Hedges v. Obama'.  Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York In office October 17, 2011 - September 11, 2018

Katherine Bolan Forrest is a partner at New York law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Career

On May 4, 2011, Barack Obama nominated Forrest to fill a judicial seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York that had been vacated by Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who took senior status at the end of 2010. Forrest was nominated by Obama to the bench in May 2011 on the recommendation of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York.

Significant cases

Hedges v. Obama

On May 16, 2012, in Hedges v. Obama, Forrest blocked enforcement the National Defense Authorization Act's indefinite detention provision. The ruling came as part of a suit challenging the NDAA as infringing "free speech and associational rights guaranteed by the First Amendment as well as due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution." Forrest's ruling was unanimously reversed by a appellate court panel on July 17th, 2013.

Price Fixing

In August 2014, Forrest dismissed a price-fixing suit against Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Glencore. She held that, although the defendant's actions did affect the aluminum marketplace, the plaintiffs failed to show the defendants had intended to manipulate prices.

U.S.A. v. Ulbricht

In 2015, Forrest presided over a jury trial in U.S.A. v. Ulbricht, where Ross William Ulbricht was accused of running the Silk Road online drug marketplace. She ruled that emoji are permissible court evidence.

She repeatedly rebuffed defense attorney Joshua Dratel's efforts to get facts about the corrupt DEA agents into the court record. "The government’s considerable efforts at keeping this monumental scandal from being aired at Ross Ulbricht’s trial is itself scandalous,” said Dratel in a statement. “It is clear from this (Bridges’) Complaint that fundamentally the government’s investigation of Mr. Ulbricht lacked any integrity, and was wholly and fatally compromised from the inside.” In response to a motion from prosecutors, Judge Forrest ruled that key portions of the testimony of Mark Karpeles (Mt. Gox CEO) would retroactively be declared inadmissible and removed from the trial record.

During the course of the trial, Forrest was doxed on 8chan, where her full mailing address, phone number, and Social Security number were posted on the baphomet subboard. She sentenced Ulbricht to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

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