Phillip Forman


Phillip Forman was a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and previously was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Education and career

Born on November 30, 1895, in New York City, New York, Forman received a Bachelor of Laws in 1919 from the Temple University Beasley School of Law. He served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919 during World War I. He entered private practice in Trenton, New Jersey from 1919 to 1932. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1923 to 1928 and was the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1928 to 1932.

Federal judicial service

Forman was nominated by President Herbert Hoover on June 11, 1932, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey vacated by Judge William Nelson Runyon. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 23, 1932, and received his commission on June 25, 1932. He served as Chief Judge from 1951 to 1959 and as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1957 to 1959. His service terminated on September 20, 1959, due to his elevation to the Third Circuit.
Forman was nominated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on February 9, 1959, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated by Judge Albert Branson Maris. He was confirmed by the Senate on September 9, 1959, and received his commission the next day. He assumed senior status on March 31, 1961. His service terminated on August 17, 1978, due to his death.

Notable grants of citizenship

In 1940, Forman gave the German physicist Albert Einstein his United States Citizenship. He served the same role for the mathematician Kurt Gödel.