Magistrate Judge Martin C. Ashman was appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on January 31, 1995. He was reappointed for a second eight-year term in 2003. On June 30, 2009, Magistrate Judge Ashman retired only to be recalled immediately thereafter, where he served until his passing on June 4, 2012.
Judge Ashman, born on May 5, 1931, was a graduate of DePaul Law School in 1953, where he served on the law review. Magistrate Judge Ashman was a partner in the law firm of Ashman & Jaffe in the general practice of law from 1954 to 1970 and continued thereafter in the general practice of law until 1987. During this time, he served as Corporation Counsel to the Village of Morton Grove and drafted the first-in-the-nation ordinance to ban the private possession of handguns, which he successfully defended against challenge under both the Illinois State Constitution and the United States Constitution. The ordinance served as a model for other municipalities’ legislation and remained governing law for nearly 30 years, until the United States Supreme Court struck down a similar ordinance enacted by the City of Chicago. Also, from 1974 through 1987, Magistrate Judge Ashman served as a Commissioner of the Illinois Court of Claims, where he adjudicated more than 300 cases without a single reversal.
In 1987, Magistrate Judge Ashman was appointed a Circuit Court Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and he successfully won election in 1988 and was retained in 1994 with the highest ratings available by the major bar associations. As a Circuit Court Judge, he initially presided in the Domestic Relations Division and, later, as a general trial judge in the Law Division. In 1993, Magistrate Judge Ashman was asked to be the first judge to sit on the Commercial Calendar, and, due to its success, it is now institutionalized in the Circuit Court of Cook County with six permanent jurists.
During his career, Judge Ashman tried approximately 50 jury trials to verdict as a practicing attorney and presided over approximately 70 jury trials as a judge. He appeared on almost every national and local TV news and talk show. He wrote about and lectured or debated various Constitutional law issues, to lay and legal audiences alike. At the time of his passing, Magistrate Judge Ashman left a wife of nearly 55 years, two married children, and seven grandchildren–all of whom he considered to be his greatest accomplishment.