Judge Leonie M. Brinkema Honorary Degree Citation

Leonie Brinkema.  For nearly fifteen years you have served on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. You are a jurist whom lawyers and colleagues alike describe as fair but tough, one who rules her courtroom with politeness, but who brooks no nonsense.

A New Jersey native, educated at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and Cornell Law School, you served as a federal prosecutor in the Justice Department and in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia before you were appointed Magistrate Judge for that court.  When the Senate confirmed your nomination by President Clinton in 1993, you became the first female to serve on that bench.

You have never shied from controversy, outraging conservatives with nationally significant decisions in which you struck down first county and then state bans regarding pornography on the Internet, on grounds that those bans unconstitutionally abridged free speech.

To the general public your name is inextricably linked to the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th 9/11 hijacker.  From your earliest rulings in 2002 through the months of the sentencing phase of the trial in 2006, you skillfully balanced the needs of the judicial system to address a serious threat to this country with the rights of the defendant.  When one of the prosecuting attorneys violated a court order, you responded swiftly and decisively, not only to reprimand her but also to assure the sanctity of the trial.  When Moussaoui sought to turn your courtroom into a media circus, you ordered him restrained and assured that decorum would be maintained.

Colby honors you tonight as a person of principle, who has ruled fairly but with keen awareness of basic values.  After Moussaoui blurted his last diatribe against American justice, you calmly concluded, “Mr. Moussaoui, you came here to be a martyr and to die in a great big bang of glory, but to paraphrase the poet T. S. Eliot, instead you will die with a whimper. You will never again get a chance to speak, and that is an appropriate and fair ending."

Your own conclusion about the Moussaoui trial summarizes your qualities as a judge, which we proudly recognize, "This trial and this verdict are clear evidence of the enduring strength of this nation and its core values.”

By the authority of the Board of Trustees of Colby College, I confer upon you, Leonie Brinkema, the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. The hood with which you have been invested and this diploma which I place in your hand are visible symbols of your membership in this society of scholars, to all the rights and privileges of which I declare you entitled.

Conferred April 6, 2008