Henry Saad

Last updated

Henry William Saad (born June 1948, in Detroit, Michigan) [1] is a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. [1]

Contents

Background

Judge Saad received his bachelor's degree from Wayne State University School of Business with honors and his Juris Doctor degree from Wayne State University, magna cum laude. He was a partner at Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen & Freeman, where he practiced law for twenty years. [1] He was also an arbitrator for the Michigan Employment Relations Commission and a hearing referee for the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.

On October 2, 1992, President George H. W. Bush nominated Saad to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, but the Senate Judiciary Committee of the 102nd Congress failed to give him a hearing and let his nomination lapse.

Saad was appointed to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1994, was elected for a six-year term in 1996, and was re-elected to a six-year term in 2002.

Sixth Circuit nomination under Bush

On November 8, 2001, Saad was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated by the Judge James L. Ryan who had taken senior status. On the same day, Bush also nominated David McKeague and Susan Bieke Neilson to Michigan seats on the Sixth Circuit. On June 26, 2002, Bush nominated Richard Allen Griffin to a fourth Michigan seat on the Sixth Circuit. During the Democratic-controlled 107th Congress, all four nominations were stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee by then chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy, D-VT.

In the 2002 midterm congressional elections, the Republicans regained control of the Senate. During the new 108th Congress, Senator Orrin Hatch, R-UT, the new Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee began to process the previously blocked four nominees. In March 2003, Michigan's two Democratic senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, announced that they would blue-slip all Bush judicial nominees from Michigan because Bush refused to renominate Helene White and Kathleen McCree Lewis, two liberal Michigan nominees, to the Sixth Circuit, whose nominations the Senate Republicans had refused to process during President Bill Clinton's second term. Helene White at the time was married to Levin's cousin. [2]

Contrary to Levin's and Stabenow's wishes, Hatch gave Saad, McKeague and Griffin committee hearings, and passed the three nominees out of committee. Angered, Levin and Stabenow convinced their caucus to filibuster the three in order to prevent them from having confirmation votes.

The Senate Republicans increased their numbers in the 109th Congress. Tensions between the Republicans and Democrats rose dramatically as the Republicans contemplated breaking the filibusters of ten Bush court of appeals nominees (including Saad, McKeague and Griffin) by using the nuclear option. During a debate concerning filibusters and the nuclear option, Judge Saad was accused by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada) of having a background that had some national security concerns, apparently in violation of various Senate rules (Senate Rule 29, Section 5). Various pundits condemned Sen. Reid for these remarks about a confidential security relationship, comparing it to the Valerie Plame affair within the Bush administration. [3]

In order to defuse the increasingly hostile situation concerning the use of the nuclear option and Democrats' obstruction of President Bush's judicial nominations, fourteen moderate and institutionalist Republican and Democratic Senators known as the Gang of 14 joined together to forge an agreement that would defuse the situation. After negotiations, they agreed to guarantee certain filibustered nominations up or down votes in exchange for retaining the judicial filibuster. Henry Saad and William Myers, however, were expressly excluded from the guarantee. Saad was excluded due to further opposition from Levin and Stabenow because he had angered Stabenow in September 2003 by sending out an e-mail critical of her participation in his original obstruction. In the e-mail, Saad wrote to a supporter about Stabenow, "This is the game they play. Pretend to do the right thing while abusing the system and undermining the constitutional process. Perhaps some day she will pay the price for her misconduct." Stabenow became aware of the e-mail when Saad accidentally sent it not only to the supporter but also to Stabenow's office. [4]

On March 23, 2006, with no hope of a confirmation vote, Saad withdrew his nomination. His 2001-2006 nomination is one of the longest nominations never acted upon by the Senate. His nomination was later replaced by that of Raymond Kethledge, who was only confirmed in 2008 after Bush reluctantly agreed to renominate Helene White, now divorced from Levin's cousin, to the Sixth Circuit.

Current life

In November 2007, the Michigan Supreme Court appointed Judge Saad to a two-year term as chief judge of the Court of Appeals beginning January 1, 2008. [5]

He is an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit/Mercy School of Law and Wayne State University Law School, where he teaches Evidence, Public Sector Labor and Professional Responsibility, respectively. Judge Saad serves on the boards of Detroit Public Television, the American Heart Association and Brother Rice High School.

Saad's wife, attorney Mara Letica Saad, was nominated by President George H. W. Bush in 1992 to be ambassador to Croatia. The nomination came late in Bush's presidency, however, and never was acted upon by the United States Senate before Bush's presidency ended. President Bill Clinton chose not to renominate her. [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates</span>

Speculation abounded over potential nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States by President George W. Bush since before his presidency.

In the United States Senate, the nuclear option is a parliamentary procedure that allows the Senate to override a standing rule by a simple majority, avoiding the two-thirds supermajority normally required to invoke cloture on a measure amending the Standing Rules. The term "nuclear option" is an analogy to nuclear weapons being the most extreme option in warfare.

William Gerry Myers III is an American lawyer and former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The Gang of 14 was a bipartisan group of Senators in the 109th United States Congress who successfully, at the time, negotiated a compromise in the spring of 2005 to avoid the deployment of the so-called "nuclear option" by Senate Republican Majority over an organized use of the filibuster by Senate Democrats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Allen Griffin</span> American judge (born 1952)

Richard Allen Griffin is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Previously, he was a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David McKeague</span> American judge (born 1946)

David William McKeague is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sean Cox</span> American judge (born 1957)

Sean Francis Cox is an American lawyer and judge serving as the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Bieke Neilson</span> American judge (1956–2006)

Susan Bieke Neilson was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and before that, a state trial judge in Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Murphy III</span> American judge (born 1962)

Stephen Joseph Murphy III is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helene White</span> American judge (born 1954)

Helene N. White is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Previously, she was a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Kathleen McCree Lewis was an American lawyer and former federal judicial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

During President Bill Clinton's first and second terms of office, he nominated 24 people for 20 federal appellate judgeships but the nominees were not processed by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. Three of the nominees who were not processed were nominated after July 1, 2000, the traditional start date of the unofficial Thurmond Rule during a presidential election year. Democrats claim that Senate Republicans of the 106th Congress purposely tried to keep open particular judgeships as a political maneuver to allow a future Republican president to fill them. Of the 20 seats in question, four were eventually filled with different Clinton nominees, fourteen were later filled with Republican nominees by President George W. Bush and two continued to stay open during Bush's presidency. Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader of the United States Senate during the 110th Congress, and Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee under Reid, repeatedly mentioned the controversy over President Clinton's court of appeals nominees during the controversy involving the confirmation of Republican court of appeals nominees during the last two years of Bush's second term. Republicans claimed that Democrats were refusing to confirm certain longstanding Bush nominees in order to allow a future Democratic president in 2009 to fill those judgeships.

During President George W. Bush's two term tenure in office, a few of his nominations for federal judgeships were blocked by the Senate Democrats either directly in the Senate Judiciary Committee or on the full Senate floor in various procedural moves, including the first use of a filibuster to block a Federal Appeals Court nominee. Republicans labeled it an unwarranted obstruction of professionally qualified judicial nominees.

During George H. W. Bush's term in office as the president of the United States of America, he nominated 11 individuals for 10 different federal appellate judgeships who were not processed by the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. The Republicans claim that Senate Democrats of the 102nd Congress on purpose tried to keep open particular judgeships as a political maneuver to allow a future Democratic president to fill them. All 10 of the judgeships were eventually filled with Clinton nominees, although one nominee, Roger Gregory, was nominated by Clinton and then renominated by President George W. Bush. None of the nominees were nominated after July 1, 1992, the traditional start date of the unofficial Thurmond Rule during a presidential election year. Senator Orrin Hatch, the Republican leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the 106th Congress mentioned the controversy over President George H.W. Bush's court of appeals nominees during the following controversy involving the confirmation of any more Democratic court of appeals nominees during the last two years of President Bill Clinton's second term.

James Arthur Beaty Jr. is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

U.S. President Barack Obama nominated over 400 individuals for federal judgeships during his presidency. Of these nominations, Congress confirmed 329 judgeships, 173 during the 111th & 112th Congresses and 156 during the 113th and 114th Congresses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Larsen</span> American judge (born 1968)

Joan Louise Larsen is an American attorney serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She previously was an associate justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 2015 to 2017.

The 2005 debate on the nuclear option was a political debate in the United States Senate regarding the possible use of the nuclear option to allow a simple majority to confirm judicial nominees. At the time, three-fifths of all senators duly chosen and sworn were required to end debate on nominations under Rule XXII of the Senate's standing rules.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie D. Davis</span> American judge (born 1967)

Stephanie Dawkins Davis is an American lawyer who is serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She previously served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and a former United States magistrate judge of the same court.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Resume Archived 2008-07-25 at the Wayback Machine at US Dept of Justice website
  2. ↑ "Byron York on Bush Judges & Senate on National Review Online". National Review . Archived from the original on 2008-07-25. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
  3. ↑ "Byron York on Harry Reid & Judges on National Review Online". National Review . Archived from the original on 2008-10-29. Retrieved 2008-10-18.
  4. ↑ Harry Reid Steps Over the Line — Again Archived 2008-02-08 at the Wayback Machine from National Review
  5. ↑ http://courts.mi.gov/supremecourt/Resources/Administrative/2007-01-CJ-Order.PDF%5B%5D
  6. ↑ "Topics of The Times; Destructive Diplomacy". The New York Times. November 2, 1992. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Most Influential Women - Mara Letica Saad - Crain's Detroit Business".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.