Lenk Nominated to Highest Massachusetts Court

Barbara Lenk becomes the first openly gay justice to be nominated to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Barbara Lenk

The honorable Barbara A. Lenk, J.D. ’79, currently a senior associate justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court, has been nominated to the Supreme Judicial Court by Governor Deval Patrick ’78, J.D. ’82. If confirmed by the Governor’s Council, Lenk would become the first openly gay justice on the commonwealth’s highest court. She and her partner married after a 2003 ruling by that court caused Massachusetts to become, on May 17, 2004, the first state to legalize same-sex marriage and only the sixth jurisdiction in the world to do so.

Born in Queens, New York, Lenk received her B.A. from Fordham in 1972 and a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Yale in 1978 before attending Harvard Law School. She focused her legal career on civil litigation with a specialty in First Amendment issues, and was appointed to the bench by then-governor William F. Weld ’66, J.D. ’70, in 1993. 

You might also like

Reconstructing the Berlin Wall

David Leo Rice explores the strange, unseen forces shaping our world.

Making Money Funny

Matt Levine’s spunky Bloomberg column

Most popular

Two Momentous Faculty Retirements

Arthur Kleinman and Harry Lewis depart the classroom.

House Committee Subpoenas Harvard Over Tuition Costs

The University must turn over all requested materials related to tuition and financial aid by mid-July. 

The Professor Who Quantified Democracy

Erica Chenoweth’s data shows how—and when—authoritarians fall.

Explore More From Current Issue

New Harvard Overseers and HAA Directors

Alumni showed increased interest in this year’s elections.

Walter Wick’s I Spy Series

I Spy Creator Walter Wick at the Norman Rockwell Museum 

Filmmaker John Armstrong’s Adventure Documentaries

Filmmaker John Armstrong’s “outdoor adventures” find the human spirit.