Representative William J. Martini - Contact Information

William John Martini (born February 10, 1947) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey. He was born in Passaic, Passaic County, New Jersey, and attended the public schools there, graduating from Passaic High School. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from Villanova University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then earned his Juris Doctor from Rutgers School of Law—Newark in 1972, preparing for a career in public service and the law.

Following law school, Martini began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Joseph P. Hanrahan of the Superior Court of New Jersey, serving from 1972 to 1973. In 1973 he joined the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office as an assistant prosecutor, gaining early experience in criminal law. The following year, in 1974, he became an assistant United States attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, a position he held until 1977. After leaving federal prosecutorial service, Martini entered private practice, where he continued to build his legal career before returning to elective public office.

Martini’s entry into elective politics came at the local and county levels in Passaic County. He settled in Clifton, New Jersey, and in 1990 won election to the Clifton City Council, marking his first success in municipal government. Expanding his role in regional affairs, he was elected in 1992 to the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders (now known as the Board of County Commissioners), where he participated in county governance and policy-making. These positions helped establish his reputation within the Republican Party and among voters in northern New Jersey.

In 1994, the Republican Party nominated Martini for Congress in New Jersey’s 8th congressional district. Running in a year marked nationally by the “Republican Revolution,” he challenged one-term Democratic incumbent Herbert Klein, who had fallen out of favor with many district voters. Benefiting from the broader Republican wave and local dissatisfaction with the incumbent, Martini defeated Klein in the general election, flipping one of the 54 House seats Republicans gained that year. His victory was historically notable: he became the first Republican to win an election in the 8th district since Representative Gordon Canfield’s final successful re-election campaign in 1958.

William J. Martini served as a Representative from New Jersey in the United States Congress from January 3, 1995, to January 3, 1997, completing one term in the House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, he represented New Jersey’s 8th congressional district during a significant period in American political history, participating in the legislative process following the shift in control of Congress in 1994. During his tenure, Martini contributed to the work of the House and represented the interests of his constituents in northern New Jersey as part of the Republican majority. In the 1996 election cycle, he sought a second term but was defeated by Paterson Mayor Bill Pascrell, making his 1996 race his final run for political office. His loss placed him among eight Republican Representatives elected in the 1994 Republican Revolution who were defeated in their first re-election bids.

After leaving Congress, Martini continued his public service in a regional bi-state capacity. In 1999, New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman appointed him to the Board of Commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He served on the Port Authority’s governing board for three years, participating in oversight of major transportation, infrastructure, and economic development projects affecting both states and the New York metropolitan area.

Martini’s federal judicial career began with his nomination by President George W. Bush on January 23, 2002, to serve as a United States district judge for the District of New Jersey. The United States Senate confirmed his nomination on November 14, 2002, and he received his commission on November 19, 2002. He entered on active service on the district court on November 14, 2002, and served in that capacity until February 10, 2015, when he assumed senior status on his sixty-eighth birthday. As a judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, he became one of 24 judges seated on that court, presiding over a wide range of civil and criminal matters.

On the bench, Martini handled several high-profile and controversial cases. His most widely noted criminal case involved former Newark Mayor Sharpe James, whom Martini sentenced to 27 months in prison following James’s conviction on corruption-related charges. State and federal prosecutors had sought a substantially longer term, requesting the maximum allowable sentence of 15 to 20 years, although federal sentencing guidelines in the case provided for a potential range of 5 to 12 years. In explaining his decision, Martini stated that James’s long years of public service influenced the sentence, but he declined to discuss the case in greater detail. Then–United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey Chris Christie announced that the government would appeal Martini’s sentencing decision.

Martini also presided over significant civil-rights and national-security-related litigation. In February 2014, he dismissed a federal lawsuit brought by eight New Jersey Muslims who alleged they had been unlawfully targeted for surveillance by the New York City Police Department because of their religion. The plaintiffs contended that the NYPD had spied on Muslims in mosques, restaurants, schools, and other community settings solely on the basis of their faith. In his written opinion, Martini concluded that the more likely explanation for the surveillance program was an effort “to locate budding terrorist conspiracies,” rather than religious discrimination. The ruling drew strong criticism from civil-liberties advocates. Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs, argued that the decision ignored the harms suffered by innocent individuals and effectively sanctioned targeted discrimination against Muslims “anywhere and everywhere in this country, without limitation, for no other reason than their religion.” The plaintiffs appealed, and numerous organizations filed amicus curiae briefs. In October 2015, the United States Court of Appeals reversed Martini’s dismissal and remanded the case for further proceedings; the litigation was ultimately settled in April 2018.

Throughout his career—as a local and county official, a one-term member of Congress, a Port Authority commissioner, and a federal district judge—William John Martini has been a prominent figure in New Jersey public life. His transition to senior status on the federal bench on February 10, 2015, marked the close of his active judicial service while allowing him to continue hearing cases in a reduced capacity.