Ellen Segal Huvelle

In February 2016, Huvelle found that the next friend of Yemenis killed in a U.S. drone strike could not sue under the Torture Victims Protection Act nor the Alien Tort Statute because the attack raised a political question.

In the summer of 2006 Huvelle amalgamated related cases into a class action against In re XM Satellite Radio Holdings Securities Litigation, C.A. No. 06-0802.

On March 25, 1999, Huvelle was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, vacated by John Garrett Penn. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 15, 1999, receiving her commission on October 26, 1999. Senator Patrick Leahy cited the long delays in Huvelle's confirmation as United States District Judge as a troubling example of problems in the confirmation process. She took senior status on June 3, 2014.

Huvelle was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as an Associate Judge of the District of Columbia Superior Court in September 1990 and served in the Civil, Criminal and Family Divisions until her appointment to the federal bench. While serving on that court, she was a lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law from 1997 to 1999.

In 1983, Huvelle was one of three attorneys who drafted an amicus brief on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America in the landmark case of Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.. As a partner at Williams & Connolly, Huvelle represented several notable clients including hotel magnate Leona Helmsley and fight promoter Don King.

Following law school, she served as law clerk to Chief Justice Edward F. Hennessey of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1975 to 1976. From 1976 until 1984, Huvelle was an associate at the firm of Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C. and in 1984, she became the first female partner at that firm, where she remained until 1990.

In 1973 she was a law clerk for the appellate division of the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office in Massachusetts. In 1974 she was a public defender for the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Boston.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College in 1970 and a Master in City Planning from the Yale School of Architecture in 1972. With her father and brother both lawyers, Huvelle focused on the law and in 1975 earned a Juris Doctor from the Boston College Law School.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Huvelle grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and graduated from Newton High School in 1966.

Ellen Judith Huvelle (née Segal; born June 3, 1948) is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She has overseen several significant cases. In a case decided in May 2001, Huvelle "upheld federal regulations that restrict the sale of consumers' names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses and phone numbers." Later that year, Huvelle heard requests by family members of Vince Foster seeking access to pictures of his body taken after his death. In November 2005, she accepted the guilty plea in the high-profile prosecution of lobbyist Michael Scanlon. Huvelle assumed senior status on June 3, 2014.