Jerry Nadler

Early life, education, and early political career

Jerrold Lewis Nadler was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn on June 13, 1947, the son of Miriam () and Emanuel "Max" Nadler. Nadler described his father as a "dyed-in-the-wool Democrat" who lost his poultry farm in New Jersey when the younger Nadler was seven. In his youth, he attended Crown Heights Yeshiva; as of 2018, he was the only member of Congress with a yeshiva education. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1965. In high school, his debate team partner was future philosopher of science Alexander Rosenberg and Dick Morris managed his successful campaign for student government president.

Nadler received his B.A. in 1969 from Columbia University, where he became a brother of Alpha Epsilon Pi. After graduating from Columbia, Nadler worked as a legal assistant and clerk, first with Corporation Trust Company in 1970, then the Morris, Levin and Shein law firm in 1971. In 1972, Nadler was a legislative assistant in the New York State Assembly before becoming shift manager at the New York City Off-Track Betting Corporation, a position he held until becoming a law clerk with Morgan, Finnegan, Pine, Foley and Lee in 1976.

While attending evening courses at the Fordham University School of Law, Nadler was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1976. He completed his J.D. at Fordham in 1978.

New York State Assembly

Nadler was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1977 to 1992, sitting in the 182nd, 183rd, 184th, 185th, 186th, 187th, 188th and 189th New York State Legislatures. He was a member of the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee and its successor, the Democratic Socialists of America. He was active in the organization as late as 1999.

In 1985, Nadler ran for Manhattan Borough President. He lost the Democratic primary to David Dinkins. In the general election, he ran as the New York Liberal Party nominee, and again lost to Dinkins.

In 1989, he ran for New York City Comptroller, but lost to Kings County D.A. and former U.S. representative Elizabeth Holtzman in the Democratic primary.

Nadler founded and chaired the Assembly Subcommittee on Mass Transit and Rail Freight.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

In 1992, Democratic representative Ted Weiss was expected to run for reelection in the 8th district, which had been renumbered from the 17th after the 1990 U.S. census. However, Weiss died a day before the primary election, and Nadler was nominated to replace Weiss. He ran in and won two elections on Election Day. He was unopposed in a special election to serve the rest of Weiss's eighth term in the old 17th district, and easily won a regular election for a full two-year term in the new 8th district.

Nadler's district was renumbered as the 10th district in 2013. From 2013 to 2023, the 10th district included Manhattan's west side from the Upper West Side down to Battery Park, including the World Trade Center; the Manhattan neighborhoods of Chelsea, Hell's Kitchen and Greenwich Village; and parts of Brooklyn, such as Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, and Bay Ridge. It includes many of New York City's most popular tourist attractions, including the Statue of Liberty, New York Stock Exchange, Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park. He has never dropped below 75 percent of the vote in a general election; the district and its predecessors have been in Democratic hands for more than 120 years.

In 2020, Nadler faced a primary challenge from activist Lindsey Boylan; the election was the first time in his tenure that Nadler received less than 75% of the vote.

In 2022, Nadler defeated his longtime House colleague Carolyn Maloney in a three-way Democratic primary with 56% of the vote after he and Maloney were both drawn into the during redistricting. Nadler won the 2022 general election in the 12 district as well.

Tenure

Nadler is the ranking member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and is a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure committees.

Despite earlier efforts to impeach George W. Bush and more recent requests from fellow representatives, he did not schedule hearings on impeachments for Bush or Dick Cheney, saying in 2007 that doing so would be pointless and would distract from the presidential election. In an interview in Washington Journal on July 15, 2008, Nadler reiterated the timing argument and endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, saying that electing an honest candidate would create a greater chance of prosecuting those in the Bush administration who had committed war crimes.

Nadler chaired the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2023.

On a similar note, referring to hypothetical impeachment proceedings against President Trump that would begin in the newly elected Democrat-controlled House, he suggested a "three-pronged test" that "would make for a legitimate impeachment proceeding". Such a test would include "the offenses in question must be so grave", and "the evidence so clear", that "even some supporters of the president concede that impeachment is necessary". If it was determined that the president committed an impeachable offense, lawmakers must consider if such an offense would "rise to the gravity where it's worth putting the country through the trauma of an impeachment proceeding," Nadler said.

On September 24, 2019, Representative Lance Gooden proposed a resolution to remove Nadler from his position as chair of the House Judiciary committee, accusing him of unlawfully beginning impeachment proceedings before the House had given the committee authorization.

Nadler served as an impeachment manager (prosecutor) during the first impeachment trial of President Trump.

For his tenure as chair of the House Judiciary Committee in the 116th Congress, Nadler earned an "A" grade from the non-partisan Lugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index.

PolitiFact criticized Nadler for incorrectly claiming following the Kenosha unrest shooting that Kyle Rittenhouse had taken a gun across state lines and might thus be subject to a federal Department of Justice review, when in fact he had not.

Nadler is the dean of New York's congressional delegation.

On May 28, 2025 an aide at Nadler's district office in New York City was detained and handcuffed by Department of Homeland Security officers. The officers accused Nadler's staffers of "harboring rioters" and demanded access to his office, claiming that they didn't need a warrant, which Nadler says is incorrect. After the officers conducted a security check of the office, the aide was later released with no charges filed and Nadler is demanding that there be a congressional investigation into the incident and that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem testify.

Committee assignments

Current

• Committee on the Judiciary
• United States House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

Former

• Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
  • Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
  • Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials

Caucus memberships

• Congressional Arts Caucus
• Black Maternal Health Caucus{{cite web|title=Caucus Members
• Congressional Jewish Caucus (co-chair)
• Congressional Progressive Caucus
• Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus
• Medicare for All Caucus
• House Pro-Choice Caucus
• Congressional Coalition on Adoption
• Congressional Caucus for the Equal Rights Amendment
• Congressional Equality Caucus
• Rare Disease Caucus

Political positions

Surveillance

Nadler was unhappy with the passage of the surveillance-reform compromise bill, the FISA of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008, saying it "abandons the Constitution's protections and insulates lawless behavior from legal scrutiny".

Income taxes

Nadler compared Obama's acceptance of Republican demands to extend the Bush tax cuts at the highest income levels to someone's being roughed up by the mob, asserting that the Republicans would allow the middle class tax cut only if millionaires and billionaires receive a long-term tax cut as well.

Nadler has proposed changing the income tax brackets to reflect different regions and their costs of living, which would have lowered the tax rate for New Yorkers. He has opposed tax breaks for high-income earners, saying that the country cannot afford it.

Abortion

Nadler sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act in 2004 and 2007.

LGBT rights

Nadler supports same-sex marriage, and anti-discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

On September 15, 2009, Nadler and two other representatives introduced the Respect for Marriage Act, a proposed bill that would have repealed the Defense of Marriage Act and required the federal government to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages.

In 2019, Nadler supported the Equality Act, a bill that would expand the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Immigration

In March 2019, as the House debated President Trump's veto of a measure unwinding his declaration of a national emergency at the southern border, Nadler said: "I'm convinced that the president's actions are unlawful and deeply irresponsible. A core foundation of our system of government and of democracies across the world, going back hundreds of years, is that the executive cannot unilaterally spend taxpayer money without the legislature's consent."

Iran

In 2015, Nadler voted to support an agreement to lift economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for Iran's compliance with the terms of the agreement which called for substantial dismantling and scaling back of their nuclear program.

Israel

Nadler describes himself as a “committed Zionist” and a strong supporter of Israel as a homeland for Jewish people.

Of Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017, Nadler said, "I have long recognized Jerusalem as the historic capital of Israel, and have called for the eventual relocation of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem, the seat of the Israeli government. While President Trump's announcement earlier today rightly acknowledged the unique attachment of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, the timing and circumstances surrounding this decision are deeply worrying."

In 2025, he spoke out against aggressive policing of pro-Palestinian protests.

Housing

In 2020, Nadler praised a judge for a ruling that could lead to the removal of 20 or more stories in an already-constructed 52-story luxury high-rise building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The developer had received a permit to construct the building, but the judge said the permit should not have been given. In March 2021, the N.Y.S. Appellate Division unanimously reversed and ruled in favor of the developers, finding that the building permit was lawful and that the trial court should have deferred to the N.Y.C. Board of Appeals. Opponents sought leave to appeal to the N.Y. Court of Appeals. On September 9, 2021, the N.Y. Court of Appeals denied the opposition group’s motion for leave to appeal.

Climate change

In April 2023, Nadler was one of the 95 co-sponsors of H.Res.319, which calls for the creation of a Green New Deal.

Cannabis

Nadler introduced the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act in July 2019 to legalize cannabis at the federal level by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act. He said: "It's past time to right this wrong nationwide and work to view marijuana use as an issue of personal choice and public health, not criminal behavior." In November 2019, the bill passed the House Judiciary Committee by a 24–10 vote, marking the first time that a bill to end cannabis prohibition had ever passed a congressional committee. In April 2022, it passed the full House of Representatives by a 228–164 vote.

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Nadler was among 46 Democrats who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.

Voting record

Nadler has had a liberal voting record in the House. He gained national prominence during the impeachment of Bill Clinton, when he described the process as a "partisan railroad job".

His Medicare proposal includes a section that provides for a consortium of organization to study Ground Zero illness.

Electoral history

Main article: Electoral history of Jerry Nadler

Personal life

Nadler and Josephine Langsdorr "Joyce" Miller wed in 1976. As of 2013, they lived in Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

In 2002 and 2003, Nadler had laparoscopic duodenal switch surgery, helping him lose more than 100 lb.

References

References

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2. (September 25, 1992). "Man in the News; Persistence Pays Off: Jerrold Lewis Nadler". [[The New York Times]].
3. (December 13, 1976). "Joyce Miller Is Wed To Jerrold Nadler". [[The New York Times]].
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46. (December 12, 2010). "Nadler: On Taxes GOP Are a Bunch of Gangsters". [[CBS News]].
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50. [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:H.R.1964: ''Freedom of Choice Act (Introduced in House)''] {{Webarchive. link. (2016-01-25 - Text of House bill HR 1964 IH (2007))
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