Michael W. McConnell | |
---|---|
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit | |
In office November 26, 2002 –August 31, 2009 | |
Nominated by | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Stephen H. Anderson |
Succeeded by | Scott Matheson Jr. |
Personal details | |
Born | Michael William McConnell May 18,1955 Louisville,Kentucky,U.S. |
Education | Michigan State University (BA) University of Chicago (JD) |
Michael William McConnell (born May 18,1955) is an American jurist who served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 2002 to 2009. Since 2009,McConnell has been a professor and Director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School. [1] He is also a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution,and Senior Of Counsel to the Litigation Practice Group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich &Rosati. In May 2020,Facebook appointed him to its content oversight board. [2] In 2020,McConnell published The President Who Would Not Be King:Executive Power under the Constitution under Princeton University Press.
McConnell graduated from Michigan State University's James Madison College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976. He received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Chicago Law School in 1979,where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review .
After law school,McConnell was a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1979 to 1980 and for U.S. Supreme Court justice William J. Brennan Jr.,from 1980 to 1981. He was an assistant general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget from 1981 to 1983 and an assistant to the Solicitor General from 1983 to 1985. From 1985 to 1996 McConnell was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School,where he brought Barack Obama on a fellowship after being impressed with a suggestion Obama,the Harvard Law Review president,had made about one of McConnell's articles. [3] He has been a professor at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School [4] and the New York University School of Law.
As a law professor,McConnell has published a variety of legal articles and edited several books. As a lawyer,he has argued cases in federal courts of appeals and before the Supreme Court,including a 5–4 victory in Rosenberger v. University of Virginia . [5] He is widely regarded as one of the preeminent constitutional law scholars on the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses. [6] [7]
In 1996,McConnell signed a statement supporting a constitutional amendment to ban abortion,which read,"Abortion kills 1.5 million innocent human beings in America every year. ... We believe that the abortion license is a critical factor in America's virtue deficit." [8]
As a respected constitutional scholar during his law school tenure,McConnell contended that originalism is consistent with the Supreme Court's 1954 desegregation decision Brown v. Board of Education ,as opposed to critics of originalism who argue that they are inconsistent. [9] [10] He has likewise argued that the Court's decision in Bolling v. Sharpe was correct but should have been reached on other grounds,as Congress never "required that the schools of the District of Columbia be segregated." [11]
McConnell was highly critical of the Supreme Court's decision in Bush v. Gore :
I imagine that Gov. Bush and his supporters will put on a brave face and defend this decision,but I cannot imagine that there is much joy in Austin tonight. The Supreme Court,with all the prestige of its position in American public life,could have brought closure to this matter. But instead,by straddling the fence,the court has produced a combination of holdings that can please no one. [12]
McConnell expressed skepticism on First Amendment grounds about restrictions on religious exercise imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. [13] [14]
In 2021,McConnell's argument that Trump could be tried by the Senate after he left office because the second impeachment occurred while he was in office was frequently cited in Senate debates and in the media.
On September 4,2001,President George W. Bush nominated McConnell to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The United States Senate confirmed him unanimously on November 15,2002,by voice vote. He received his commission on November 26,2002. He resigned from the bench on August 31,2009. [15]
While on the Tenth Circuit,McConnell wrote several judicial opinions. The Supreme Court reviewed four cases in which McConnell wrote an opinion;in each case,the Court reached the same result as McConnell. First,in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal (2006), [16] a case involving the religious use of a hallucinogenic tea,the Supreme Court affirmed 8–0 a Tenth Circuit en banc decision to which Judge McConnell wrote a concurring opinion Archived January 11,2016,at the Wayback Machine . Second,in Fernandez-Vargas v. Gonzales (2008), [17] a case involving the retroactive application of a statutory provision limiting appeals from immigration removal orders,the Supreme Court affirmed 8–1 a Tenth Circuit panel decision written by Judge McConnell. Third,in Begay v. United States (2008), [18] a case about whether a felony conviction for driving under the influence is a crime of violence for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act,the Supreme Court reversed 6–3 a Tenth Circuit panel decision from which McConnell dissented. Fourth,in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum (2009), [19] a case involving whether the presence of a Ten Commandments monument on government property gave another religion a First Amendment right to place its own monument on the same property,the Supreme Court unanimously reversed a Tenth Circuit panel decision that McConnell had challenged by writing a dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc.
Significant opinions by McConnell include:
McConnell was mentioned as a potential nominee to the Supreme Court during the Bush administration. In June 2005,amid expectations that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist would retire at the end of the Court's term,some sources cited McConnell as a frontrunner for Rehnquist's seat,which ultimately went to John Roberts. Professor Stephen B. Presser of Northwestern University School of Law argued [22] that McConnell was "high on the White House's short list" because:
McConnell was also mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee in a John McCain or Mitt Romney presidency. [23] [24]
On June 30,2021,McConnell provided testimony to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States on the dangers of increasing the Court's size. He proposed a constitutional amendment to address such dangers,including an 18-year term limit on justices and appointment of a justice in each odd year,unless the Senate voted against the appointment. [25] [26]
Highlights of his testimony include:
Any attempt to increase the size of the Court would be widely,and correctly,be regarded as a partisan interference with the independence of the Court.... It is no exaggeration to say that this would destroy one of the central features of our constitutional system,the independent judiciary. [25] [26]
This [McConnell’s] proposal,if adopted,would have several salutary effects. It would make the power of the president to name Supreme Court justices regular,fair,and consistent,and thus likely would lower the political stakes of each nomination. The political balance of the Court would reflect the opinions of the people over time as expressed in their choice of presidents and senators,rather than the happenstance of health or accident or the strategic timing of the justices. [25] [26]
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents Congress from making laws respecting an establishment of religion;prohibiting the free exercise of religion;or abridging the freedom of speech,the freedom of the press,the freedom of assembly,or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15,1791,as one of the ten amendments that constitute the Bill of Rights. In the original draft of the Bill of Rights,what is now the First Amendment occupied third place. The first two articles were not ratified by the states,so the article on disestablishment and free speech ended up being first.
United States v. Morrison,529 U.S. 598 (2000),is a U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that parts of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 were unconstitutional because they exceeded the powers granted to the US Congress under the Commerce Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. Along with United States v. Lopez (1995),it was part of a series of Rehnquist Court cases that limited Congress's powers under the Commerce Clause.
City of Boerne v. Flores,521 U.S. 507 (1997),was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the scope of Congress's power of enforcement under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case also had a significant impact on historic preservation.
In United States law,the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,together with that Amendment's Free Exercise Clause,form the constitutional right of freedom of religion. The Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause together read:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
James Harvie Wilkinson III is an American jurist who serves as a United States circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. His name has been raised at several junctures in the past as a possible nominee to the United States Supreme Court.
Reva B. Siegel is the Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Siegel's writing draws on legal history to explore questions of law and inequality,and to analyze how courts interact with representative government and popular movements in interpreting the Constitution. She is currently writing on the role of social movement conflict in guiding constitutional change,addressing this question in recent articles on reproductive rights,originalism and the Second Amendment,the "de facto ERA," and the enforcement of Brown. Her publications include Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking;The Constitution in 2020;and Directions in Sexual Harassment Law. Professor Siegel received her B.A.,M.Phil,and J.D. from Yale University,clerked for Judge Spottswood William Robinson III on the D.C. Circuit,and began teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,and is active in the American Society for Legal History,the Association of American Law Schools,the American Constitution Society,in the national organization and as faculty advisor of Yale's chapter. She was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2018.
Diane Schwerm Sykes is an American jurist and lawyer who serves as the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She served as a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1999 to 2004.
Thomas Eugene Baker is a constitutional law scholar,Professor of Law,and founding member of the Florida International University College of Law. With four decades of teaching experience,Baker has authored eighteen books,including two leading casebooks,has published more than 200 scholarly articles in leading law journals,and has received numerous teaching awards.
Ann Althouse is an American law professor and blogger.
Locke v. Davey,540 U.S. 712 (2004),is a United States Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of a Washington publicly funded scholarship program which excluded students pursuing a "degree in devotional theology". This case examined the "room ... between the two Religion Clauses",the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause.
Conscience clauses are legal clauses attached to laws in some parts of the United States and other countries which permit pharmacists,physicians,and/or other providers of health care not to provide certain medical services for reasons of religion or conscience. It can also involve parents withholding consenting for particular treatments for their children.
Diane Pamela Wood is an American attorney who serves as the director of the American Law Institute and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. She previously served as a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Timothy Michael Tymkovich is an American lawyer who has served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit since 2003;serving as chief judge from 2015 to 2022. In November 2023,he was designated by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve as a judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.
The Harvard Law &Policy Review is a law journal and the official journal of the American Constitution Society,a progressive legal organization. It was established in 2007. The journal publishes two printed editions per year,as well as additional content posted exclusively online. It is edited by Harvard Law School students and typically has a staff of approximately 75 students. The journal publishes articles presenting progressive ideas for law and policy written by legal scholars,policymakers,practitioners,and students.
The ministerial exception, sometimes known as the ecclesiastical exception,is a legal doctrine in the United States barring the application of anti-discrimination and other laws governing the employment relationship between a religious institution and certain key employees with ministerial roles. As the Supreme Court explained in the landmark 2012 case Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. E.E.O.C.,the exception is drawn from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and serves two purposes:to safeguard the freedom of religious groups "to select their own ministers" and to prevent "government involvement in [...] ecclesiastical decisions". The first purpose is rooted in the Free Exercise Clause;the second,in the Establishment Clause. When the ministerial exception applies,it gives religious institutions an affirmative defense against lawsuits for discrimination. For example,a woman seeking to become a Catholic priest cannot sue the Catholic Church for sex discrimination over its position that women cannot be ordained as priests. The Supreme Court later elaborated on when employees qualify as ministerial –and thus how broadly the exception applies –in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru (2020).
Washington v. Confederated Bands and Tribes of the Yakima Indian Nation,439 U.S. 463 (1979),was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the State of Washington's imposition of partial jurisdiction over certain actions on an Indian reservation,when not requested by the tribe,was valid under Public Law 280.
In United States constitutional law,the penumbra includes a group of rights derived,by implication,from other rights explicitly protected in the Bill of Rights. These rights have been identified through a process of "reasoning-by-interpolation",where specific principles are recognized from "general idea[s]" that are explicitly expressed in other constitutional provisions. Although researchers have traced the origin of the term to the nineteenth century,the term first gained significant popular attention in 1965,when Justice William O. Douglas's majority opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut identified a right to privacy in the penumbra of the constitution.
Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia,Inc. v. Comer,582 U.S. ___ (2017),was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a Missouri program that denied a grant to a religious school for playground resurfacing,while providing grants to similarly situated non-religious groups,violated the freedom of religion guaranteed by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra,585 U.S. 755 (2018),was a case before the Supreme Court of the United States addressing the constitutionality of California's FACT Act,which mandated that crisis pregnancy centers provide certain disclosures about state services. The law required that licensed centers post visible notices that other options for pregnancy,including abortion,are available from state-sponsored clinics. It also mandated that unlicensed centers post notice of their unlicensed status. The centers,typically run by Christian non-profit groups,challenged the act on the basis that it violated their free speech. After prior reviews in lower courts,the case was brought to the Supreme Court,asking "Whether the disclosures required by the California Reproductive FACT Act violate the protections set forth in the free speech clause of the First Amendment,applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment."
American Legion v. American Humanist Association,588 U.S. 19 (2019),was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with the separation of church and state related to maintaining the Peace Cross,a World War I memorial shaped after a Latin cross,on government-owned land,though initially built in 1925 with private funds on private lands. The case was a consolidation of two petitions to the court,that of The American Legion who built the cross,and of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission who own the land and maintain the memorial. Both petitions challenged the Fourth Circuit's ruling that,regardless of the secular purpose the cross was built for in honoring the deceased soldiers,the cross emboldened a religious symbol,and had ordered it altered or razed. The Supreme Court reversed the Fourth Circuit's ruling in a 7–2 decision,determining that since the Cross had stood for decades without controversy,it did not violate the Establishment Clause and could remain standing.
His academic scholarship includes, among other publications, the following: