Loretta A. Preska (born 1949) is an American lawyer who serves as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Born in Albany, Preska received law degrees from Fordham University School of Law and New York University School of Law. She practiced law in New York City from 1973 to 1992 at the law firms of Cahill Gordon & Reindel and Hertzog, Calamari & Gleason (now Winston & Strawn). President George H. W. Bush appointed her to the district bench in 1992. She served as chief judge of the court for a seven-year term from 2009 to 2016, and took senior status in 2017. President George W. Bush nominated Preska to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2008, but the Senate did not act on the nomination.
Early life and education Preska was born in Albany, New York,Confirmation Hearings on Appointments to the Federal Judiciary, May 14, June 4, 18, and July 1, 1992, Pt. 9, Serial No. J-102-7, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 102nd Congress, 1st Session (1993), pp. 317–30. in 1949, to her father, Victor, an engineer at Benét Laboratories at Watervliet Arsenal, and her mother, Etta Mae, a registered nurse.Phil Schatz, Judicial Profile: Hon. Loretta A. Preska: Chief U.S. District Judge, Southern District of New York, The Federal Lawyer (December 2013). She is of Lithuanian descent.Confirmation Hearings on Appointments to the Federal Judiciary, May 14, June 4, 18, and July 1, 1992, Pt. 9, Serial No. J-102-7, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 102nd Congress, 1st Session (1993), p. 220.The Judicial Front in the War on Terror: Interview with Loretta Preska, Center for Oral History, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. She grew up in the Albany suburb of Delmar, where she was active in the Girl Scouts and graduated from Bethlehem Central High School.
She earned her B.A. degree in chemistry from the College of Saint Rose (1970), her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law (1973), and her LL.M from New York University School of Law (1978). Her LL.M work focused on trade regulation.
Legal career Preska was an attorney in private practice in New York City from 1973 until 1992. She worked at Cahill Gordon & Reindel from 1973 to 1982, and then at Hertzog, Calamari & Gleason from 1982 until her appointment to the federal bench. She primarily practiced commercial civil litigation in the federal courts,Confirmation Hearings on Appointments to the Federal Judiciary, May 14, June 4, 18, and July 1, 1992, Pt. 9, Serial No. J-102-7, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 102nd Congress, 1st Session (1993), pp. 204–06. but also represented several officers of EF Hutton in grand jury proceedings in connection with a case in which the company entered criminal guilty pleas. She cites Floyd Abrams as a friend and mentor.
Federal judicial service Preska was nominated by President George H. W. Bush on March 31, 1992, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Judge Robert Joseph Ward. Senator Al D'Amato recommended the nomination.Alumni Stories, Honorable Loretta A. Preska '70, H '95, College of St. Rose (last accessed September 6, 2020).A Small Whittling Down of Federal Bench Vacancies, New York Times (August 16, 1992), p. 43. Preska was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 11, 1992,PN1003 — Loretta A. Preska — The Judiciary: 102nd Congress (1991–1992), Congress.gov. by unanimous consent. She received her commission the following day. Her confirmation was part of a "bipartisan package" that also including the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor (who later became a Supreme Court justice). Sotomayor was confirmed by the Senate to the district bench the same day, also unanimously.
Preska served as chief judge of the court for a seven-year term from June 1, 2009, to May 31, 2016, succeeding Kimba M. Wood in the role.Meet the Judges: Southern District Chief Judge Loretta Preska, New York Law Journal (June 13, 2014). As chief judge, Preska pressed for more adequate funding for the federal judiciary,Reed Albergotti, Judge Preska: Budget Cuts Hurting SDNY, Wall Street Journal (August 26, 2013). Joe Palazzolo, U.S. Attorney, Chief Judge Decry Budget Cuts, Wall Street Journal (December 2, 2013). which suffered from the effects of the Great Recession and budget sequestration. In 2010, as chief judge, Preska issued an order permitting criminal defense attorneys to carry mobile phones into the courthouse; previously, only federal prosecutors were permitted to do so. The rule change followed several years of lobbying by the Federal Bar Council.John Eligon, Now, Cellphones for the Defense, Too, New York Times (February 19, 2010).
She took senior status on March 1, 2017.
Consideration for higher courts In 2007, it was reported that Preska was on President George W. Bush's short list of potential Supreme Court nominees.Jan Crawford Greenburg, EXCLUSIVE: Women, Minorities Top Bush's Supreme Court Short List, ABC News, June 1, 2007
On September 9, 2008, Bush nominated Preska to a judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to replace Judge Chester J. Straub, who retired.Nominations and Withdrawals Sent to the Senate (press release), White House Office of the Press Secretary (September 9, 2008). The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously rated Preska "well qualified" for the circuit judgeship, the committee's highest rating.Ratings of Article III Judicial Nominees: 110th Congress, American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary (last updated November 20, 2008). The Senate did not act on the nomination, and it expired in January 2009 at the end of the 110th Congress,PN1989 — Loretta A. Preska — The Judiciary: 110th Congress (2007–2008), Congress.gov. upon the sine die adjournment of the Senate.
Tenure and notable cases Preska is considered a conservative judge,Tom Wrobleski, Staten Islanders quick to chide judge for wiping her feet on the flag, Staten Island Advance (December 30, 2011). and served on the advisory board of the Federalist Society. Preska has presided over a number of notable cases.
Civil cases Commercial, copyright, and contract litigation In Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp. (1996), Preska ruled that an image of the actor Leslie Nielsen seemingly pregnant that mimicked a similar photo of Demi Moore was fair use as parody. Her ruling was upheld by the Second Circuit in 1998.Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 948 F. Supp. 1214 (S.D.N.Y. 1996), aff'd, 137 F.3d 109 (2d Cir. 1998).Get Over Yourself: Parody and Fine Art, Federal Bar Association (November 10, 2016). In National Basketball Association v. Motorola, Inc. (1997), Preska ruled in favor of the NBA, granting a permanent injunction blocking Motorola Inc. and a statistics company from transmitting real-time basketball scores and other statistics through its "SportsTrax" pager service. Preska ruled that the service was a commercial misappropriation rather than mere media coverage, but dismissed the NBA's copyright and Lanham Act false-advertising claims. On appeal, the Second Circuit vacated the injunction, finding that the service was neither an unlawful misappropriation nor a Lanham Act violation.Nat't Basketball Ass'n v. Sports Team Analysis & Tracking Sys., Inc., 939 F. Supp. 1071 (S.D.N.Y. 1996), rev'd, 105 F.3d 841 (2d Cir. 1997). Larry Neumeister, NBA Loses Court Fight Over Score Pager Services, Washington Post (January 31, 1997).
Preska presided over the case of Mastercard International Inc. v. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (2006), brought by MasterCard against FIFA after the soccer association awarded sponsorship deals for the next two World Cups to MasterCard's rival Visa.Martha Graybow, MasterCard and FIFA settle World Cup sponsor fight, Reuters (June 21, 2007).Mastercard International Inc. v. Fédération Internationale De Football Association, 464 F. Supp. 2d 246 (S.D.N.Y. 2006). Preska ruled in December 2006 that FIFA had violated its previous 16-year sponsorship contract with MasterCard, which included a clause granting MasterCard a right of first refusal. The parties subsequently settled the case.
In Zuckerman v. Metropolitan Museum of Art (2018), Preska ruled in favor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, dismissing a lawsuit seeking the return of Picasso's painting The Actor to the heir of its original owners, Paul and Alice Leffmann. The Leffmanns were a German Jewish couple who sold the painting in 1938 to finance their flight from Nazis. The painting was acquired by the Met in 1952. Preska ruled that the Leffmanns' heir could not show, under New York law, that the painting was sold under duress. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal on the ground that the claim was raised too late (72 years after the work was sold and 58 years after it was donated to the art museum).Zuckerman v. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 307 F. Supp. 3d 304 (S.D.N.Y. 2018), aff'd, 928 F. 3d 186 (2d Cir. 2019). Judge rules against heir who wanted Met to return a Picasso, Associated Press (February 7, 2018). US Appeals Court Dismisses Ownership Claim over Picasso, Art Forum (June 27, 2019).
Defamation litigation In 1998, Preska presided over a defamation suit brought by Richard Jewell against the New York Post. Jewell, who was wrongly suspected of being the Centennial Olympic Park bomber, alleged that several articles, headlines, photographs, and editorial cartoons in the newspaper had libeled him. Preska dismissed claims based on a photograph and an editorial cartoon, but allowed the remainder of the claims to proceed.Jewell Libel Suit To Proceed, Associated Press (October 1, 1998). Jewell v. NYP Holdings, Inc., 23 F. Supp. 2d 348 (1998). The Post subsequently settled the case for an undisclosed sum.Paul Farhi, What Clint Eastwood's new movie gets very wrong about the female reporter who broke the Richard Jewell story, Washington Post (December 10, 2019).
In 2019, Preska disqualified the law firm of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP from representing Virginia Giuffre in her lawsuit against professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, but denied Dershowitz's motion to dismiss the suit, in which Giuffre alleged that Dershowitz falsely claimed that she fabricated her sexual-abuse accusations against Jeffrey Epstein, and thus defamed her.Giuffre v. Dershowitz, 410 F. Supp. 3d 564 (S.D.N.Y. 2019).Tom Jackman & Deanna Paul, David Boies thrown out of libel suit he filed against Alan Dershowitz, Washington Post (October 16, 2020).Tom Winter, Sarah Fitzpatrick and Adiel Kaplan, Judge denies Alan Dershowitz's motion to dismiss Epstein-related defamation suit, NBC News (October 16, 2019). In 2020, Preska denied a motion by British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, an Epstein associate charged with recruiting girls abused by Epstein, to block the public release of her 2016 deposition testimony in a civil case. Preska stayed her ruling pending Maxwell's appeal to the Second Circuit.Larry Neumeister, Epstein's ex-girlfriend tries late bid to seal testimony, Associated Press (July 29, 2020).
Labor litigation