'Thoughtful Jurist': Maryland US District Senior Judge Messitte Dies After Short Illness
A Maryland federal judge who championed the First Amendment died Saturday after a short illness, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland announced Monday.
U.S. District Senior Judge Peter J. Messitte presided over thousands of cases and resolved numerous disputes throughout his 40-year judicial career at the state and federal levels, court dockets show.
The death of Messitte, a University of Chicago Law School alumnus, caused seasoned attorneys to remember his no-nonsense approach to judicial review.
“His colleagues and Court staff deeply mourn his passing,” Maryland’s federal trial courts said. He was 83.
Messitte served as a Maryland state trial judge in Montgomery County from 1985 to 1993 before former President Bill Clinton appointed him to the federal bench, where he remained until his death.
Mayer Brown partners Nancy Ross and Reginald Goeke, who represented Lockheed Martin Corp. in an active case before Messitte, appreciated the judge’s commitment to jurisprudence.
“We express our sincere condolences to Judge Messitte’s family and loved ones,” Ross and Goeke said Tuesday in a joint statement. “The Judge was a thoughtful jurist who worked tirelessly to reach an equitable result in the matters before him. His presence in the courtroom will be missed.”
Some of the high-profile cases Messitte presided over include the emoluments clause litigation against President-elect Donald Trump and a defamation lawsuit against Amazon.com Inc. dismissed voluntarily by the plaintiff.
Assuming senior status in 2008, Messitte was active on the bench and immersed in cutting-edge legal issues.
One of the final cases and controversies before Messitte pitted a group of college students against the University of Maryland, College Park.
The university’s Students for Justice in Palestine organization sued UMCP in late last year and won a preliminary injunction securing the right to host a vigil denouncing Israel’s war in Gaza on the one-year anniversary of the vicious Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
“It is clear to the Court that UMCP’s decision to revoke its permission to SJP to hold its event on October 7 was neither viewpoint-neutral, nor content neutral, nor narrowly tailored to serve a significant government interest,” Messitte wrote in his memorandum opinion allowing the Oct. 7 vigil to take place. “The Court finds that SJP has made a clear showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits, that it will be able to demonstrate that the University’s actions in revoking its planned event for October 7 amounted to an unconstitutional denial of SJP’s First Amendment rights.”
Counsel for SJP included the Council on American-Islamic Relations senior litigation attorney Gadeir I. Abbas.
“Judge Messitte did not flinch at all when it came time to defend the First Amendment,” Abbas said Tuesday. “He stood by Students for Justice in Palestine at a time when hysteria gripped the country on the eve of October 7th’s first anniversary. When many wanted to demonize students speaking out against Israel’s genocide, Judge Messitte humanized them.”
The university revoked its permission for the SJP vigil after receiving a letter demanding UMCP “immediately shut down the event” should students “accuse Israel of committing genocide” or should there be “any mention of Israel as an apartheid state,” according to Messitte’s decision.
“Free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment may be the most important law this country has,” Messitte wrote in his memorandum opinion filed Oct. 1. “In many ways, all other basic freedoms—freedom of religion, of the press, of the right to assemble, and to petition the government—depend upon it.”
Born in Washington, D.C., and sporting an international reputation for his charisma, “Judge Messitte was renowned for his judicial outreach throughout the world, and especially in Latin America,” according to the Maryland federal bench. “In June 2017, he received the Order of the Southern Cross for his contributions to the Brazilian Judiciary.”
Messitte served at the federal courthouse in Greenbelt, which sometimes fields bigger cases than the federal courthouse in Baltimore.
A ceremony in remembrance of Messitte will take place at the Greenbelt courthouse this spring, according to the federal trial courts of Maryland.
Reprinted with permission from the January 14th edition of National Law Journal © 2025 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited.
