Judge Alvin Hellerstein dies at 92 while presiding over Maduro case

Maduro case and other judicial matters will be randomly reassigned

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who was overseeing the case against deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, died Wednesday morning at 92. A court spokesperson announced the death and said the Maduro case, along with every other matter Hellerstein was presiding over, would be randomly assigned to other judges.

Hellerstein joined the federal bench in 1998, when President Bill Clinton appointed him. He was serving as a U.S. district judge when he died and had been overseeing the Maduro case.

In recent years, Hellerstein presided over a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s efforts to deport immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act with little to no due process. He issued a ruling against the administration, stating that the president’s use of the law contradicted the requirement that those deported be given due process.

In the ruling, Hellerstein said:

“Conveniently, Respondents fail to mention another section of the AEA that imposes a ‘duty’ on the federal courts to give a ‘full examination and hearing’ to the Executive’s ‘complaint’ against the alien, and to order the alien’s removal only upon ‘sufficient cause appearing,’”

The passage set out what Hellerstein described as another section of the AEA: a duty on federal courts to provide a full examination and hearing and to order removal only upon sufficient cause appearing. His ruling placed the administration’s deportation efforts against the law’s due-process protection.

Hellerstein also blocked Trump’s attempts to move his criminal case for hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels to federal court. He rejected three of those attempts.

The New York Times reported that Hellerstein was a deeply religious Orthodox Jew and was known to hold sentencings on Fridays so he could reflect on his decisions over the Sabbath.

Among the other cases he oversaw were a lawsuit from 9/11 victims against American Airlines and a lawsuit against former movie producer Harvey Weinstein. The court spokesperson said the random reassignment would cover all other matters Hellerstein was presiding over, not only the Maduro case.