When Judge Matthew Solomson’s great-grandfather came to the United States from Russia in the early 1900s, seeking a haven from the state-sanctioned antisemitism that plagued Europe, he was so scarred by the way his government had treated Jews that he would cross the street whenever he saw a police officer. 

“My dad remembers his grandfather behaving that way because of a generalized fear of the state and authority,” Solomson recounted. 

Now, just three generations later, Solomson, 51, is the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, making him just the second Orthodox Jew to be named chief judge of any federal court in the United States, and the first in nearly two decades. As he sits in his chambers, with a clear view of the White House and a piece of art depicting the Western Wall hanging behind his desk, he reflects on his family’s quintessentially American story.

“To go from that kind of attitude about a government, any government, to serving at a high level within the government in the space of 100 years, to go from a family of immigrants to having been appointed by the president the United States, is a tremendous honor, and I think a tremendous testament to our government and the incredible nature of the American society,” Solomson told Jewish Insider in an interview this week. 

The Court of Federal Claims, located in Washington, hears cases stemming from disputes over government contracts — a niche, complex and expansive realm of jurisprudence that Solomson literally wrote the book on. He clerked for the court more than two decades ago after graduating from law school at the University of Maryland. 

“I think he’s uniquely qualified,” said Nancie Marzulla, an attorney who specializes in matters that come before this court. “A lot of judges come to the court and they really haven’t had any experience with litigating cases or [were] in any way involved in cases that the court handles. So they have a big learning curve.” 

Solomson does not hear splashy cases. The high-stakes litigation emerging daily over the Trump administration’s actions is for the most part not relevant to his judgeship — although there is a question of whether disputes rising from the federal government’s severing of contracts with Ivy League universities will be heard by the Court of Federal Claims, depending on what kind of lawsuits the universities bring. (Solomson declined to comment on the matter.)

The kinds of matters that do come before Solomson are technical and at times wonky, and even though contracting and procurement cases that originate in his court sometimes reach the Supreme Court, this is generally not the litigation to which even the most legally inclined Americans pay much attention. 

But Solomson has attracted attention in recent months for his willingness to publicly and clearly condemn antisemitism at America’s top law schools after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in Israel. He has become a regular poster on LinkedIn, where his first message after the attacks called for moral clarity in condemning Hamas and standing with Israel and the Jewish community.

“Jurists often must consider which of two competing (or mutually exclusive) principles should apply to decide a particular case. From experience I can tell you that it is not always easy. Today, it is,” he wrote. 

Judges must be impartial, and Solomson is not able to weigh in on partisan politics or any issues that could possibly come before his court. But he rejects the idea that judges cannot weigh in on important issues. In fact, he believes the opposite is true. 

“The code of judicial ethics encourages us to not withdraw from society and be monastic judges who try to make themselves into computers, who are just personified AI,” he said. “The judicial ethics encourage us to be law professors and to go to bar events and speak at bar events and speak on the rule of law, and to speak about legal education.”

When a group of nearly three dozen Harvard student groups released a statement the day after Oct. 7 blaming Israel for the attacks, Solomson decided he would not hire any clerks who belonged to the groups that had signed that letter. “I refuse to credential anyone who supports or even remotely sympathizes with terror in the form of a modern day pogrom,” Solomson wrote on LinkedIn. The post quickly turned into a major story in the legal world. 

“I was actually surprised that that got attention, because, frankly, I don’t know anyone who would hire such a person right now,” said Solomson. “I had colleagues on my court who came in and said, ‘I’m glad you said something, but it’s kind of sad that you have to, because I would take such a resume and throw it out.’” 

Solomson was nominated to the court by President Donald Trump during his first term, and he was confirmed by the Senate in January 2020. Trump designated him chief judge in April. 

“I think his advocacy on that really put him out there as someone that the administration could look to as someone who stands strong for what he believes in, for Western civilization and for American values,” said Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former Bush administration political appointee. (Troy and Solomson play doubles tennis with their sons in Kemp Mill, a heavily Jewish neighborhood in Silver Spring, Md.) 

Last spring, Solomson extended his policy to a blanket boycott of Columbia Law School students, along with several other conservative federal judges. “I don’t know if it made a difference or not, but I’m still glad we did it and we agreed that, should things change on campus, we will reassess,” Solomson said. “There hasn’t been any serious consideration about rolling back the boycott, given what we’ve seen on campus lately.”

He takes the education of the next generation of jurists seriously. Solomson is the dean of the Tikvah Legal Fellowship, which brings together right-leaning Jewish law students for networking opportunities and the study of the law — both Jewish and civil. He has also sought to educate his fellow judges, including by bringing 14 federal judges to Israel last year to bear witness to the atrocities of Oct. 7 and learn about international law in the context of Israel’s war in Gaza.

“We have to be careful from opining on the types of issues that could come before us for decision. But there’s a lot of broader issues out there that are very unlikely to come before us in any way. And so to the extent we play a role in legal education in society, which is something that our ethical canons expressly say is a good thing for us to do, we thought that this would be a useful educational mission,” Solomson said. 

He first started preparing a trip to Israel as a way to discuss and learn about the debate over judicial reform that roiled Israeli society in early 2023. After Oct. 7, the focus shifted entirely. 

“I think it’s fair to say that we were uniformly impressed with the degree to which the Israeli army went to avoid collateral civilian harm,” Solomson said. “They take international law there very seriously.”

Solomson traces his interest in public service to his father, a doctor and retired army colonel who served as the chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. But before that assignment, the family moved frequently for his postings. 

Solomson’s father is not Orthodox, but he is a proud Jew: He turned down shellfish, which is non-kosher, even when served to him at a general’s home. At a military base in Hawaii, Solomson’s father built a sukkah in the family’s front yard, which a military officer — with no knowledge of Sukkot — asked him to take down, before the elder Solomson taught him about the Jewish holiday. 

From his father, Solomson learned “a real love of country,” he noted. “When I was at the Justice Department for almost five years [from 2007 to 2011], I always said one of life’s great experiences was standing up in court and being able to say, ‘Your honor, on behalf of the United States,’ and then my name, which is a real, real honor.”

Similarly, as the first Orthodox Jew in a generation to serve as a chief judge on a federal court, Solomson gets to set an example in public service for young Jews who are entering the legal profession at a time when many of the top schools have seen antisemitism increase after Oct. 7.

“He becomes a role model for Jewish lawyers, whether they’re Orthodox or not Orthodox, especially younger ones who see you can rise to that level in the legal profession in the United States,” said Nathan Diament, executive director of public policy at the Orthodox Union. “It’s simply meaningful and significant.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article said Solomson was the first Orthodox chief judge of a federal court. He is the second.