Furman worked as a lawyer at the law firm Wiggin & Dana from 2000 to 2002 and again from 2003 to 2004.[3] In 2004, he became a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, where he served as an Assistant United States Attorney. From 2007 to 2009, he worked in the office of the United States Attorney General as Counselor to the Attorney General.[3][1] A 2005 New York Observer article named him as a potential future Supreme Court nominee.[5]
Federal judicial service
On June 7, 2011, President Barack Obama nominated Furman to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York that had been vacated by Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who assumed senior status in January 2011.[3][6] On September 15, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported his nomination to the Senate floor by a voice vote. On February 15, 2012, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed cloture on Furman's nomination.[7] The Senate vitiated the cloture motion on February 16 and confirmed Furman on February 17, by a 62–34 vote.[8] He received his commission the same day.[1]
On March 24, 2018, United States Secretary of CommerceWilbur Ross announced his decision to add a question about citizenship status to the 2020 Census questionnaire, asserting that it was necessary to help the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[9] Two groups of plaintiffs filed lawsuits in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to block the question.[10] The cases were assigned to Furman, who rejected the plaintiffs' claim that adding the question violated the Enumeration Clause of the U.S. Constitution but held that Ross's decision violated the Administrative Procedure Act and that the Voting-Rights-Act-enforcement rationale was a pretext designed to conceal the true reasons for adding the question.[11] Furman entered an order blocking implementation of Ross's decision.[12] On June 27, 2019, the Supreme Court affirmed Furman's order, agreeing that the Voting-Rights-Act-enforcement rationale was pretextual.[13] The Court's decision left open the possibility that Ross could try again to add the citizenship question to the 2020 Census,[13] but the Trump administration did not make a second attempt.[14]
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