Judge Allison Dale Burroughs is a United States District Judge for the District of Massachusetts, appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed in December 2014. Born in 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts, she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Middlebury College in 1983 and her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1988.
Judge Burroughs began her legal career clerking for Judge Norma L. Shapiro of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1988 to 1989. She then served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (1989–1995) and in the District of Massachusetts (1995–2005), focusing on white-collar and economic crimes. From 2005 to 2014, she was a partner at the Boston law firm Nutter McClennen & Fish, specializing in complex criminal and civil litigation.
Since her appointment to the federal bench, Judge Burroughs has presided over several high-profile cases:
- Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University: She ruled in favor of Harvard, finding that its admissions policies did not discriminate against Asian American applicants.
- United States v. Salemme: Judge Burroughs oversaw the trial of former mob boss Francis “Cadillac Frank” Salemme, who was convicted of racketeering and murder.
- United States v. Babich: She presided over the prosecution of executives from Insys Therapeutics, including CEO Michael Babich and founder John Kapoor, for their roles in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe a fentanyl-based pain medication.
- Harvard and MIT v. ICE (2020): Judge Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order blocking a Trump administration policy that would have required international students to leave the U.S. if their courses were online-only during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Harvard University SEVP Certification (2025): In May 2025, she blocked the Department of Homeland Security from revoking Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, citing “immediate and irreparabinjury” to the university.
Beyond her judicial duties, Judge Burroughs has been active in community service, serving on the board of Agassiz Village, a camp for underprivileged youth, and co-founding Womenade Boston, a nonprofit supporting programs for women and girls.
Judge Burroughs is recognized for her meticulous legal reasoning and her commitment to fairness and justice in the federal judiciary.
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