Douglas H. Ginsburg

• Cornell University (BS)
• University of Chicago (JD)

Douglas H. Ginsburg
Official portrait, 2005
Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office October 14, 2011

Douglas Howard Ginsburg (born May 25, 1946) is an American lawyer, jurist, and academic serving as a senior U.S. circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He is also a professor of law at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School.

Ginsburg was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, and he served as its chief judge from 2001 to 2008. In 1987, Reagan announced his intention to nominate Ginsburg as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. But Ginsburg withdrew his name from consideration before being formally nominated, ^[1] after news reports that he had smoked marijuana in the past created controversy. ^{[2] [3] [4]}

Ginsburg took senior status in October 2011, and joined the faculty of New York University School of Law in January 2012. ^[5] In 2013, he left NYU and began teaching at George Mason University. He is the author of scholarly works on U.S. antitrust law and constitutional law. ^[6]

Early life and education

Ginsburg was born on May 25, 1946, in Chicago, Illinois, to Katherine (née Goodmont) and Maurice Ginsburg. ^[7] After graduating from the Latin School of Chicago in 1963, he attended Cornell University. In 1965, Ginsburg dropped out of Cornell due to "boredom" and founded Operation Match, an early computer dating service based in Boston, Massachusetts. Ginsburg sold the company in 1968 and returned to Cornell, graduating in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial relations. ^{[8] [9]}

Ginsburg then attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review along with future judge Frank Easterbrook. He graduated in 1973 with a Juris Doctor and membership in the Order of the Coif.

Career

After law school, Ginsburg was a law clerk for Judge Carl E. McGowan on the D.C. Circuit from 1973 to 1974 and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1974 to 1975. ^[10] He then became a professor at Harvard Law School, where he taught labor law, antitrust law, and other subjects. Ginsburg taught at Harvard until 1983, when he joined the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan as the administrator of the Executive Office of the President's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He worked in the Reagan administration until 1986, serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division.

From 1988 to 2008, he was an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law (now Antonin Scalia Law School), where he taught a seminar called "Readings in Legal Thought". ^[11] Until 2011 he was also a Visiting Lecturer and Charles J. Merriam Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School in Chicago, Illinois. Ginsburg has been a visiting professor at Columbia University Law School (1987–1988) and a visiting scholar at New York Law School (2006–2008).

Ginsburg is currently a professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School. He was previously a visiting professor at University College London Faculty of Laws. ^[12] He serves on the advisory boards of the Global Antitrust Institute (Chairman), the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics and the Centre for Law, Economics, and Society, both at University College London, Faculty of Laws; Competition Policy International; Journal of Competition Law & Economics ; Journal of Law, Economics & Policy ; Supreme Court Economic Review ; University of Chicago Law Review ; and the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy .

Federal judicial service

Ginsburg was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on September 23, 1986, to a seat on the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by Judge J. Skelly Wright. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 8, 1986, and received his commission on October 14, 1986. He served as Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit from 2001 to 2008, and he assumed senior status on October 14, 2011. ^[13]

He was a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States, 2001–2008, and previously served on its Budget Committee, 1997–2001, and Committee on Judicial Resources, 1987–1996; American Bar Association, Antitrust Section, Council, 1985–1986 (ex officio), 2000–2003 and 2009–2012 (judicial liaison); Boston University Law School, Visiting Committee, 1994–1997; and University of Chicago Law School, Visiting Committee, 1985–1988.

United States Supreme Court nomination

Ginsburg with President Ronald Reagan in 1987

On October 29, 1987, President Reagan announced his intention to nominate Ginsburg to the Supreme Court of the United States to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Lewis Powell, ^{[14] [15]} which had been announced on June 26. ^[16] Ginsburg was chosen after the United States Senate, controlled by Democrats, had voted down the nomination of Judge Robert Bork after a highly controversial nomination battle which ended with a 42–58 rejection vote on October 23. ^[17]

Ginsburg's nomination collapsed for entirely different reasons from Bork's rejection, as he almost immediately came under some fire when NPR's Nina Totenberg revealed that Ginsburg had used marijuana "on a few occasions" during his student days in the 1960s and while an assistant professor at Harvard in the 1970s. It was Ginsburg's continued use of marijuana after graduation and as a professor that made his actions more serious in the minds of many senators and members of the public. ^[18] Ginsburg was also accused of a financial conflict of interest during his work in the Reagan Administration, but a Department of Justice investigation under the Ethics in Government Act determined the allegation was baseless. ^[19]

Due to the allegations, Ginsburg withdrew his name from consideration on November 7, ^{[3] [4]} and remained on the Court of Appeals, serving as chief judge for most of the 2000s. Anthony Kennedy was then nominated on November 11 and confirmed in early February 1988 as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. ^{[20] [21]}

Personal life

Ginsburg married the public relations consultant Deecy Gray in 2007 in a ceremony at the U.S. Supreme Court performed by Chief Justice John Roberts. ^[22] He has three daughters from two previous marriages.

Selected scholarly works

• Ginsburg, Douglas H. (1981). "Interstate Banking". Hofstra Law Review . 9 (4): 1133–72.
• DeMuth, Christopher C.; Ginsburg, Douglas H. (1986). "White House Review of Agency Rulemaking". Harvard Law Review . 99 (5): 1075–88. JSTOR   1341244.
• Ginsburg, Douglas H.; Falk, Donald (1990). "The Court En Banc: 1981–1990". The George Washington Law Review . 59 (5): 1008–91.
• Ginsburg, Douglas H. (1991). "Vertical Restraints: De Facto Legality under the Rule of Reason". Antitrust Law Journal . 60 (1): 67–82. JSTOR   40799286.
• Ginsburg, Douglas H.; Shechtman, Paul (1993). "Blackmail: An Economic Analysis of the Law". University of Pennsylvania Law Review . 141 (5): 1849–76. JSTOR   3312576.
• Wright, Joshua D.; Ginsburg, Douglas H. (2013). "The Goals of Antitrust: Welfare Trumps Choice". Fordham Law Review . 81 (5): 2405–24.
• Wright, Joshua D.; Ginsburg, Douglas H. (2015). "Behavioral Law and Economics: Its Origins, Fatal Flaws, and Implications for Liberty". Northwestern University Law Review . 106 (3): 1033–88.
• Padilla, Jorge; Ginsburg, Douglas H.; Wong-Ervin, Koren W. (2019). "Antitrust Analysis Involving Intellectual Property and Standards: Implications from Economics" (PDF). Harvard Journal of Law & Technology . 33 (1): 1–64.

See also

• List of Jewish American jurists
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 10)

References

1. McMillion, Barry J. (January 28, 2022). "Supreme Court Appointment Process: President's Selection of a Nominee" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
2. "Ginsburg admits marijuana use". Lodi News-Sentinel. UPI. November 6, 1987. p. 1.
3. "Ginsburg withdraws as court nominee". Register-Guard . Eugene, Oregon. wire service reports. November 8, 1987. p. 1A.
4. "Drug furor forces Ginsburg's withdrawal". Spokesman-Review . Spokane, Washington. Associated Press. November 8, 1987. p. A1.
5. "D.C. Circuit Judge Ginsburg to Join NYU Law Faculty – The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times". Legaltimes.typepad.com. September 2, 2011. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
6. "SSRN Author Page for Ginsburg, Douglas H". Papers.ssrn.com. Retrieved 2014-08-22.
7. Broder, John M. (November 8, 1987). "Collapse of the Ginsburg Nomination: At the End, Ginsburg Stood Alone – and Still a Puzzle". Los Angeles Times.
8. Shenon, Philip (1987-10-30). "Nominee Left College to Be Matchmaker". The New York Times. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
9. Mathews, T. Jay (1965-11-03). "Operation Match". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
10. "Douglas H. Ginsburg". Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University. 2013-07-03. Retrieved 2014-08-22.
11. "Offerings". University of Chicago Law School. Archived from the original on 2014-02-01. Retrieved 2014-08-22.
12. "Faculty of Laws – People". University College London. 2014-06-02. Archived from the original on 2014-08-03. Retrieved 2014-08-22.
13. Douglas H. Ginsburg at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges , a publication of the Federal Judicial Center .
14. "Democrats open-minded on Ginsburg". Milwaukee Sentinel. Associated Press. October 30, 1987. p. 1, part 1.
15. "President picks young, novice judge". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. October 30, 1987. p. 1A.
16. "Powell to leave Supreme Court". Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. June 26, 1987. p. 1A.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
17. "Bork loses by 58–42 Senate vote". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. October 24, 1987. p. 1A.
18. Larry J. Sabato (1987). "Media Frenzies in Our Time: Judge Douglas Ginsburg's Marijuana Use". The Washington Post .
19. Hall, Kermit, ed., The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, page 339, Oxford Press, 1992
20. "Senate confirms Kennedy". Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. February 3, 1988. p. 3A.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
21. Steven V. Roberts (1987-11-08). "Ginsburg withdraws name as Supreme Court nominee, citing marijuana "clamor"". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2016-01-31.
22. "Deecy Gray, Douglas Ginsburg". The New York Times. 23 September 2007. Retrieved 12 February 2024.

External links

• Douglas Howard Ginsburg at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges , a publication of the Federal Judicial Center .
• University of Chicago Faculty Bio
• George Mason University Faculty Bio Broken link.
• Reagan's Remarks in Nomination to the Supreme Court Archived 2008-07-05 at the Wayback Machine
• Appearances on C-SPAN

Political offices
Preceded by Christopher DeMuth	Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs 1984–1985	Succeeded by Wendy Lee Gramm
Legal offices
Preceded by J. Paul McGrath	United States Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division 1985–1986	Succeeded by Charles Rule
Preceded by J. Skelly Wright	Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 1986–2011	Succeeded by Cornelia Pillard
Preceded by Harry T. Edwards	Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 2001–2008	Succeeded by David B. Sentelle