Joan Lefkow

Joan Marilyn Humphrey Lefkow (born January 8, 1944) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Education and career Lefkow was born in Nemaha County, Kansas. She attended Wheaton College in Illinois, where she received an Artium Baccalaureus degree, and obtained her Juris Doctor (J.D.) at Northwestern University School of Law in 1971. After graduation, she became a law clerk for Judge Thomas E. Fairchild of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. From 1982 to 1997 she was a United States magistrate judge, and from 1997 to 2000 a United States Bankruptcy Judge of the Northern District of Illinois. Federal judicial service Lefkow was nominated by President Bill Clinton on May 11, 2000, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated by Judge Ann Claire Williams, and confirmed by the United States Senate on June 30, 2000. She received her commission on July 11, 2000. Lefkow assumed senior status on September 1, 2012. Matthew Hale In May 2000, Judge Lefkow presided over the enforcement of a high-profile trademark infringement case against the World Church of the Creator (WCOTC), an organization run by white supremacist leader Matthew F. Hale. The Oregon-based TE-TA-MA Truth Foundation—described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as "a peace-loving, multicultural church"—sued Hale's church for using the name "Church of the Creator." WCOTC argued against the validity of the suit because Hale's church had been using the name since 1973, but the Foundation had trademarked it in 1987, and no contest was filed against the trademark within a five-year period, making their ownership legally incontestable. In January 2002, Lefkow ruled in favor of Hale, but her decision was overturned on appeal. On July 25, Lefkow ruled against Hale, saying that his church infringed the Church of the Creator's trademark. (Hale's organization has since been renamed the Creativity Movement.)