George Caram Steeh III | |
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Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan | |
Assumed office January 29, 2013 | |
Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan | |
In office May 22,1998 –January 29,2013 | |
Appointed by | Bill Clinton |
Preceded by | Barbara Kloka Hackett |
Succeeded by | Laurie J. Michelson |
Personal details | |
Born | George Caram Steeh III 1947 (age 75–76) Ann Arbor,Michigan |
Education | University of Michigan (B.A.) University of Michigan Law School (J.D.) |
George Caram Steeh III (born 1947) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Born in Ann Arbor,Michigan,Steeh received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1969 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1973. He worked in the Genesee County Prosecutor's Office from 1973 to 1980,as an assistant prosecuting attorney from 1973 to 1978,and as a first assistant prosecuting attorney from 1978 to 1980. He was in private practice in Michigan from 1980 to 1988,also serving as a public administrator of Macomb County from 1986 to 1989. He was a judge on the 41-B District Court,State of Michigan from 1989 to 1990,and on the 16th Circuit Court of Michigan from 1990 to 1998.
On September 24,1997,Steeh was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan vacated by Barbara Kloka Hackett. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 13,1998,and received his commission on May 22,1998. He assumed senior status on January 29,2013.
In October 2010,he was the first of several federal court judges to hear a case concerning the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. The main question here is whether the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States gives the United States Congress the authority to buy any commercial product,which in this case is health insurance. Steeh ruled that the Act is constitutional,writing:"These decisions,viewed in the aggregate have clear and direct impacts on health care providers,taxpayers and the insured population who ultimately pay for the care provided to those who go without insurance," and that choosing not to obtain health insurance qualifies as an example of "activities that substantially affect interstate commerce." According to the Supreme Court of the United States,if a federal law arbitrates activities that substantially affect interstate commerce,then that law complies with the Commerce Clause. [1]
Steeh tossed a civil rights lawsuit filed by a couple who claimed Detroit police officers operating as a “dog death squad”shot and killed their three dogs during a marijuana raid. He dismissed the suit filed by Kevin Thomas and Nikita Smith against Detroit police officers,saying they couldn’t recover because their dogs did not have a city license. Steeh reasoned that,because the dogs were unlicensed,Thomas and Smith had no legitimate possessory interest in the dogs,and there could be no violation of the Fourth Amendment. “When a person owns a dog that is unlicensed,in the eyes of the law it is no different than owning any other type of illegal property or contraband,”Steeh wrote. As precedent,Steeh cited a decision by the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that held a plaintiff didn’t have a legitimate possessory interest in an unregistered submachine gun seized by police without a warrant. [2]
The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution. The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations,and among the several States,and with the Indian Tribes". Courts and commentators have tended to discuss each of these three areas of commerce as a separate power granted to Congress. It is common to see the individual components of the Commerce Clause referred to under specific terms:the Foreign Commerce Clause,the Interstate Commerce Clause,and the Indian Commerce Clause.
United States v. X-Citement Video,Inc.,513 U.S. 64 (1994),was a federal criminal prosecution filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles against X-Citement Video and its owner,Rubin Gottesman,on three charges of trafficking in child pornography,specifically videos featuring the underaged Traci Lords. In 1989,a federal judge found Gottesman guilty and later sentenced him to one year in jail and a $100,000 fine.
Wickard v. Filburn,317 U.S. 111 (1942),is a United States Supreme Court decision that dramatically increased the regulatory power of the federal government. It remains as one of the most important and far-reaching cases concerning the New Deal,and it set a precedent for an expansive reading of the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause for decades to come. The goal of the legal challenge was to end the entire federal crop support program by declaring it unconstitutional.
Printz v. United States,521 U.S. 898 (1997),was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that certain interim provisions of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act violated the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The Thomas More Law Center is a Christian,conservative,nonprofit,public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor,Michigan,and active throughout the United States. According to the Thomas More Law Center website,its goals are to "preserve America's Judeo-Christian heritage,defend the religious freedom of Christians,restore time-honored moral and family values,protect the sanctity of human life,and promote a strong national defense and a free and sovereign United States of America."
The McCarran–Ferguson Act,15 U.S.C. §§1011-1015,is a United States federal law that exempts the business of insurance from most federal regulation,including federal antitrust laws to a limited extent. The 79th Congress passed the McCarran–Ferguson Act in 1945 after the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Association that the federal government could regulate insurance companies under the authority of the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution and that the federal antitrust laws applied to the insurance industry.
Willson v. Black-Bird Creek Marsh Co.,27 U.S. 245 (1829),was a significant United States Supreme Court case regarding the definition of the Commerce Clause in Article 1 sec. 8,cl. 3 of the U.S. Constitution.
Jerry Edwin Smith is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Smith v. Turner;Norris v. Boston,48 U.S. 283 (1849),were two similar cases,argued together before the United States Supreme Court,which decided 5–4 that states do not have the right to impose a tax that is determined by the number of passengers of a designated category on board a ship and/or disembarking into the State. The cases are sometimes called the Passenger Case or Passenger Cases.
Bernard A. Friedman is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Henry Edward Hudson is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
An individual mandate is a requirement by law for certain persons to purchase or otherwise obtain a good or service.
Compagnie Francaise de Navigation a Vapeur v. Louisiana Board of Health,186 U.S. 380 (1902),was a United States Supreme Court case which held constitutional state laws requiring the involuntary quarantine of individuals to prevent the spread of disease. Louisiana's quarantine laws,Justice Edward White said,were a reasonable exercise of the state's police power that conflicted with neither the Dormant Commerce Clause nor the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In dissent,Justice Henry Billings Brown,joined by John Marshall Harlan,agreed that while quarantine laws were constitutional,Louisiana's went beyond the scope of the state's authority over interstate commerce,even violating several treaties between the United States and other nations.
United States v. Alfonso D. Lopez,Jr.,514 U.S. 549 (1995),was a landmark case of the United States Supreme Court that struck down the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 (GFSZA) due to its being outside of Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce. It was the first case since 1937 in which the Court held that Congress had exceeded its power under the Commerce Clause.
Robert J. Muise is an American attorney who specializes in constitutional law litigation. Along with attorney David Yerushalmi,he is co-founder and Senior Counsel of the American Freedom Law Center (AFLC),a national nonprofit law firm whose stated mission is "to fight for faith and freedom by advancing and defending America's Judeo-Christian heritage and moral foundation through litigation,education,and public policy programs." Before launching AFLC,Muise was Senior Trial Counsel at the Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center,a conservative Christian law firm founded by Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan.
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius,567 U.S. 519 (2012),is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court upheld Congress's power to enact most provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA),commonly called Obamacare,and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (HCERA),including a requirement for most Americans to pay a penalty for forgoing health insurance by 2014. The Acts represented a major set of changes to the American health care system that had been the subject of highly contentious debate,largely divided on political party lines.
Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA),there have been numerous actions in federal courts to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation. They include challenges by states against the ACA,reactions from legal experts with respect to its constitutionality,several federal court rulings on the ACA's constitutionality,the final ruling on the constitutionality of the legislation by the U.S. Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius,and notable subsequent lawsuits challenging the ACA. The Supreme Court upheld ACA for a third time in a June 2021 decision.
Laurie Jill Michelson is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and former United States magistrate judge of the same court.
United States v. Kebodeaux,570 U.S. 387 (2013),was a recent case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the Sex Offender Notification and Registration Act (SORNA) was constitutional under the Necessary and Proper Clause.