James C. Duff

Last updated
James C. Duff
James-C-Duff-NEW.jpg

James C. Duff is the Executive Director of the Supreme Court Historical Society, [1] and has served as Executive Director since February 2021. He is a former director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. He previously served as Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO), by appointment of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., from January 2015 through January 2021. He served an earlier term as AO Director from July 2006 to September 2011. As AO Director, Duff was the Secretary of the Judicial Conference of the United States and a member of the board of the Federal Judicial Center. He served from 2006 to 2011, and again from 2015 to 2020. [2]

Contents

The Newseum

From September 2011 to December 2014, Duff was chief executive officer of the Newseum, an interactive museum of news in Washington, D.C., that promotes free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution; president and CEO of the museum's Newseum Institute, which serves as a forum for First Amendment study, exploration and education; and president and CEO of the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation that supports education about the First Amendment.

Education and early career

Duff graduated magna cum laude from the University of Kentucky Honors Program in 1975 with a degree in political science and philosophy, where he was Phi Beta Kappa. He also was a walk-on on the university's basketball team. [3]

After studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1974, he returned to the U.S. in 1975 and worked for four years as an aide in the chambers of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. [4] He graduated from Georgetown Law in 1981, [5] then worked at the law firm Clifford and Warnke, where in 1990 he became a partner.

In 1991, a large contingent of Clifford and Warnke lawyers and staff, including Duff, merged with the firm of Howrey and Simon, [6] where he practiced antitrust, commercial litigation, and international trade until 1996.

From 1996 to 2000, Duff was Chief Justice William Rehnquist's Administrative Assistant, now called "Counselor to the Chief Justice," [5] serving as his liaison with the other branches of government and as executive director of the Judicial Fellows Commission. He preceded Sally Rider as the Chief Justice's chief of staff, [7] in which Duff assisted Rehnquist in his roles as chair of the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Federal Judicial Center Board. He also served as counselor to the Chief Justice as presiding officer of the U.S. Senate's 1999 presidential impeachment trial.

From 2000 to 2006, Duff served as the managing partner of the Washington office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, which was opened by former Majority Leader Howard Baker Jr. [8] [9] There he represented the Federal Judges Association before Congress [10] as well as the Freedom Forum.[ citation needed ]. He also represented the University of Kentucky's federal government interests in Washington and at the request of NCAA President Myles Brand, in 2006 he authored an overview and report to the NCAA on its rules and procedures. Duff has taught constitutional law at Georgetown University as an adjunct professor. He was named the Peter Mullen Professor of Law at Georgetown University for the fall of 2014 and previously served as the first lecturer of the Giles Seminar at Georgetown for two years.

In September 2005, Duff was a pallbearer at Rehnquist's funeral, [4] [11] alongside seven of Rehnquist's former law clerks. Duff authored a tribute to Chief Justice Rehnquist in the November 2005 edition of the Harvard Law Review [12] and spoke at the unveiling Ceremony for the William H. Rehnquist bust in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court in December 2009.

From July 2006 through September 15, 2011, Duff served as Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. He was appointed in April 2006 by United States Chief Justice John Roberts. [13] On May 31, 2011, Duff announced [14] that he was stepping down to assume the position of CEO at the Freedom Forum.

He was appointed to the Georgetown Law Center's Board of Visitors in 2014 and serves on the boards of Freedom House, the Supreme Court Historical Society and the University of Kentucky Arts & Sciences Advisory Board. He was named to the University of Kentucky Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 2012 and was given the Georgetown Entertainment and Media Law Achievement Award in 2012. Duff was elected to the membership at the American Law Institute in 2016.[ citation needed ]

On November 4, 2014, it was announced by Chief Justice John Roberts that Duff would once again become Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, effective January 1, 2015. He succeeded Director Judge John D. Bates. [15] [16] He retired on December 31, 2020. [17]

Personal life

Duff and his wife, Kathleen Gallagher Duff, live in Bethesda, Maryland, and have three children. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Supreme Court of the United States</span> Highest court in the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of U.S. Constitutional or federal law. It also has original jurisdiction over a narrow range of cases, specifically "all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party." The court holds the power of judicial review, the ability to invalidate a statute for violating a provision of the Constitution. It is also able to strike down presidential directives for violating either the Constitution or statutory law. However, it may act only within the context of a case in an area of law over which it has jurisdiction. The court may decide cases having political overtones, but has ruled that it does not have power to decide non-justiciable political questions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chief Justice of the United States</span> Presiding judge of the United States Supreme Court

The chief justice of the United States is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States and is the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. federal judiciary. Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution grants plenary power to the president of the United States to nominate, and with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, appoint "Judges of the Supreme Court", who serve until they resign, retire, are impeached and convicted, or die. The existence of a chief justice is only explicit in Article One, Section 3, Clause 6 which states that the chief justice shall preside on the impeachment trial of the president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Day O'Connor</span> US Supreme Court justice from 1981 to 2006

Sandra Day O'Connor is an American lawyer, former politician, and jurist who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was both the first woman nominated and the first confirmed to the court. A moderate conservative, O'Connor was known for her precisely researched opinions. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was considered a swing vote for the Rehnquist Court and the first five months of the Roberts Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Chase</span> Founding Father of the United States (1741–1811)

Samuel Chase was a Founding Father of the United States, signer of the Continental Association and United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland, and Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Chase was impeached by the House of Representatives on grounds of letting his partisan leanings affect his court decisions but was acquitted by the Senate and remained in office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas F. Hogan</span> American judge

Thomas Francis Hogan is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who served as director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts from October 17, 2011, until June 30, 2013.

Judicial disqualification, also referred to as recusal, is the act of abstaining from participation in an official action such as a legal proceeding due to a conflict of interest of the presiding court official or administrative officer. Applicable statutes or canons of ethics may provide standards for recusal in a given proceeding or matter. Providing that the judge or presiding officer must be free from disabling conflicts of interest makes the fairness of the proceedings less likely to be questioned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. Boyden Gray</span> American lawyer (1943–2023)

Clayland Boyden Gray was an American lawyer and diplomat who served as White House Counsel from 1989 to 1993 and as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 2006 to 2007. He was a founding partner of the Washington, D.C.–based law firm Boyden Gray & Associates LLP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Administrative Office of the United States Courts</span> Administrative agency of the US federal court system

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AO) or the Administrative Office (AO) for short, is the administrative agency of the United States federal court system, established in 1939. The central support entity for the federal judicial branch, the AO provides a wide range of legislative, administrative, legal, financial, management, program, and information technology support services to the federal courts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Katzmann</span> American judge (1953–2021)

Robert Allen Katzmann was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He served as chief judge from September 1, 2013, to August 31, 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Colloton</span> American judge

Steven Michael Colloton is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit since 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rehnquist Court</span> Period of the US Supreme Court from 1986 to 2005

The Rehnquist Court was the period in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States during which William Rehnquist served as Chief Justice. Rehnquist succeeded Warren Burger as Chief Justice after the latter's retirement, and Rehnquist held this position until his death in 2005, at which point John Roberts was nominated and confirmed as Rehnquist's replacement. The Rehnquist Court is generally considered to be more conservative than the preceding Burger Court, but not as conservative as the succeeding Roberts Court. According to Jeffrey Rosen, Rehnquist combined an amiable nature with great organizational skill, and he "led a Court that put the brakes on some of the excesses of the Earl Warren era while keeping pace with the sentiments of a majority of the country."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David F. Levi</span> American judge

David Frank Levi is a United States jurist and former Dean of the Duke University School of Law. From 1990 to 2007, he was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, serving as Chief Judge from 2003 to 2007. At the time Levi left the bench, he was widely considered to be one of the top federal judges in the nation. He had been mentioned as a possible nominee to the Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark R. Kravitz</span> American judge

Mark Richard Kravitz was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

Sven Erik Holmes is an American attorney and jurist who served as United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roslynn R. Mauskopf</span> American judge

Roslynn Renee Mauskopf is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and the director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. She previously served as the chief judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York from 2020 to 2021 and as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York from 2002 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Rehnquist</span> Chief Justice of the United States from 1986 to 2005

William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American attorney and jurist who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, first as an associate justice from 1972 to 1986 and then as the 16th chief justice from 1986 until his death in 2005. Considered a staunch conservative, Rehnquist favored a conception of federalism that emphasized the Tenth Amendment's reservation of powers to the states. Under this view of federalism, the Court, for the first time since the 1930s, struck down an act of Congress as exceeding its power under the Commerce Clause.

President Richard Nixon entered office in 1969 with Chief Justice Earl Warren having announced his retirement from the Supreme Court of the United States the previous year. Nixon appointed Warren E. Burger to replace Earl Warren, and during his time in office appointed three other members of the Supreme Court: Associate Justices Harry Blackmun, Lewis F. Powell, and William Rehnquist. Nixon also nominated Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell for the vacancy that was ultimately filled by Blackmun, but the nominations were rejected by the United States Senate. Nixon's failed Supreme Court nominations were the first since Herbert Hoover's nomination of John J. Parker was rejected by the Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Robertson (judge)</span> American judge (1938–2019)

James Robertson was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 1994 until his retirement in June 2010. Robertson also served on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court from 2002 until December 2005, when he resigned from that court in protest against warrantless wiretapping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelia Pillard</span> American judge

Cornelia Thayer Livingston Pillard, known professionally as Nina Pillard, is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Before becoming a judge, Pillard was a tenured law professor at Georgetown University.

References

  1. ↑ https://supremecourthistory.org/
  2. ↑ "Press Releases - pr_01-05-21 - Supreme Court of the United States". www.supremecourt.gov. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  3. ↑ "Ex-UK basketball walk-on Jim Duff has made a big mark in a different 'court'" . Retrieved 2014-03-04.
  4. 1 2 Davis, Marcia (September 5, 2005). "One Man's Unwavering Constitution". The Washington Post. pp. C1. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  5. 1 2 "New Administrative Assistant Begins Duties at Supreme Court" . Retrieved 2008-05-02.
  6. ↑ Walsh, Sharon (December 1991). "Warnke, Others Leave Clark Clifford Law Firm." The Washington Post. C1. ProQuest. Retrieved on 2008-05-02.
  7. ↑ "New Administrative Assistant at Supreme Court" . Retrieved 2008-05-02.
  8. ↑ "Chief Justice Roberts Appoints Jim Duff of Baker Donelson to U.S. Courts Director Position". www.BakerDonelson.com. 2006-05-12. Archived from the original on October 26, 2006. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
  9. ↑ "Noted ...." Wall Street Journal. April 25, 2006: B11. ProQuest. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
  10. ↑ "Federal Judges Association Newsletter". November 30, 2004. Retrieved 2008-05-06.
  11. ↑ McGough, Michael (September 7, 2005). "Rehnquist lies in state". Post Gazette. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  12. ↑ Duff, James C. 2005. "In Memoriam: William H. Rehnquist." Harvard Law Review, volume 119, issue 1, p. 16-19
  13. 1 2 Arberg, Kathy (April 2006). Press Release. (HTML). Retrieved on 2008-05-08
  14. ↑ "Administrative Office Head, Jim Duff, Announces Resignation". United States Courts. May 31, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
  15. ↑ "James C. Duff to Return as AO Director in January 2015". uscourts.gov. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  16. ↑ "Press Release". Supreme Court of the United States. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  17. ↑ "AO Director Announcement" (Press release). Washington, D.C.: Supreme Court of the United States. January 5, 2021. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
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.