Richard J. Leon | |
---|---|
Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia | |
Assumed office December 31, 2016 | |
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia | |
In office February 19,2002 –December 31,2016 | |
Appointed by | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Norma Holloway Johnson |
Succeeded by | Trevor N. McFadden |
Personal details | |
Born | Natick,Massachusetts,U.S. | December 3,1949
Education | College of the Holy Cross (BA) Suffolk University (JD) Harvard University (LLM) |
Richard J. Leon (born December 3,1949) is an American jurist who serves as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Leon was born in South Natick,Massachusetts,in 1949. He is the son of Silvano B. Leon and Rita M. Leon,née O'Rorke. [1] His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Portugal who settled in Framingham,Massachusetts. [2]
Leon received his Bachelor of Arts degree from College of the Holy Cross in 1971,where he played varsity lacrosse [3] and was a classmate of future Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He received his Juris Doctor,cum laude,from Suffolk University Law School in 1974.
Leon served as a law clerk to the justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court from 1974 to 1975 and to Thomas F. Kelleher of the Rhode Island Supreme Court from 1975 to 1976. Leon was an attorney for the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the United States Department of Justice from 1976 to 1977 and a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York working in the Civil Division from 1977 to 1978.
Leon received his Master of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1981.
Leon was an assistant professor of law at St. John's University School of Law from 1979 to 1983 and a senior trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice from 1983 to 1987. Leon served as deputy chief minority counsel on the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran of the United States House of Representatives,which investigated the Iran-Contra affair,from 1987 to 1988. [4]
Leon was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General and served from 1988 to 1989,when he entered private practice in Washington,D.C.,first with Baker &Hostetler from 1989 to 1999 and then with Vorys,Sater,Seymour and Pease from 1999 to 2002,when he was appointed to the district court.
Leon was a member of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships from 1990 to 1993. Leon was appointed chief minority counsel on the October Surprise Task Force of the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 1992 to 1993. He served as special counsel to the House Financial Services Committee in 1994. He is an adjunct professor at The George Washington University Law School and the Georgetown University Law Center.
Leon was nominated to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by George W. Bush on September 10,2001,to the seat vacated by Norma Holloway Johnson. Confirmed by the Senate on February 14,2002,he received his judicial commission five days later. He assumed senior status on December 31,2016.
Leon was responsible for adjudicating the habeas corpus petitions of several dozen captives held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. [5] [6] [7] Boumediene v. Bush ,which was eventually considered by the Supreme Court,was first heard by Leon. By August 28,2008,Leon had 24 cases assigned to him. [8]
The Associated Press reported Leon hoped to resolve those cases before the presidential inauguration in 2009 and was concerned that the public and the detainees will be barred from observing the hearings:"If it can't be done,I have great concern that these hearings will be virtually or exclusively classified,closed to the public and,I might add,to the detainees." [9]
During a hearing on October 23,2008,Leon commented on the ambiguity of the term "enemy combatant" and criticized Congress and the Supreme Court:"We are here today,much to my dismay,I might add,to deal with a legal question that in my judgment should have been resolved a long time ago. I don't understand,I really don't,how the Supreme Court made the decision it made and left that question open... I don't understand how the Congress could let it go this long without resolving." [10] On November 20,Leon ordered five detainees released from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base due to insufficient evidence. [11] [12]
In December 2008,Leon denied Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alawi's habeas corpus petition,finding the enemy combatant's detention was lawful under the Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001. [13] [14] In February 2017,Leon denied another habeas corpus petition from al Alawi,rejecting the detainee's claim that the war's hostilities had ceased. [15] [16]
On December 16,2013,Leon ruled that the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' telephony records likely violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution,though he stayed enforcement of his injunction pending appeal to the D.C. Circuit. [17] Excerpts from his decision are as follows: [18]
I cannot imagine a more "indiscriminate" and "arbitrary invasion" than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every citizen [...] the almost-Orwellian technology [...] Records that once would have revealed a few scattered tiles of information about a person now reveal an entire mosaic – a vibrant constantly updating picture of a person's life. [...] No court has ever recognized a special need sufficient to justify continuous, daily searches of virtually every American citizen without any particularized suspicion. The Government urges me to be the first non-FISC judge to sanction such a dragnet. [...] The Government does not cite a single instance in which analysis of the NSA's bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack [...] Because of the utter lack of evidence that a terrorist act has ever been prevented because searching the NSA database was faster than other investigative tactics – I have serious doubts about the efficacy of the metadata collection program [...] I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison [...] would be aghast.
In January 2010, Leon preliminarily enjoined the Food and Drug Administration from blocking the importation of electronic cigarettes. [19]
In 2010 he threw out the charges in an obscenity case against director John Stagliano: "I hope the government will learn a lesson from its experience", calling the Justice Department's prosecution "woefully insufficient". [20]
In 2011, he dismissed former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt as an expert witness, after Pitt while testifying in a deposition as an expert witness for securities class action plaintiffs suing Fannie Mae, refused to answer any more questions and walked out of his deposition. [21] [22] [23] [24]
On November 7, 2011, Leon issued a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for ordering graphic images on cigarette packs. On February 29, 2012, Leon's final ruling held that the graphic images and statements violated the commercial right to free speech.
On September 1, 2011, Leon approved Assistant Attorney General Christine A. Varney's agreement allowing the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast. [25] [26]
On January 2, 2013, Leon ruled that a memo linking the Palestinian Authority (PA) to a suicide bombing that killed two American teenagers and one Israeli teen be returned to the PA or destroyed. The memo had been inadvertently turned over to attorneys for the families of the victims in a lawsuit over the killings. In a motion for a stay of Leon's order, lawyers for the plaintiffs said if they returned or destroyed the memo, "this critically important evidence of murder will likely be lost forever." [27]
On May 17, 2016, Leon ruled that limits imposed by Washington, D.C., on permits to carry handguns were unconstitutional. He struck down the District requirement that an applicant show "good reason" before a concealed carry permit would be issued. [28]
In August 2016 Leon issued a controversial stay of the Purple Line, a long-delayed light rail transit project in the D.C. suburbs, insisting that the project needed another Environmental Impact Statement. [29] Maryland Governor Larry Hogan noted Leon's close relationship with the Columbia Country Club, a prominent opponent of the project. Leon's ruling was later overruled. [30]
On January 4, 2018, Leon denied a request by Fusion GPS to block the House Intelligence Committee from demanding bank records of 70 of the private investigative firm's transactions with law firms, journalists and contractors, ruling that the request "did not violate the company's First Amendment rights" to political speech and association. [31]
On June 12, 2018, Leon rejected all of Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim's claims and refused to block the $85.4 billion merger of AT&T and Time Warner. [32]
On November 29, 2018, Leon raised concerns surrounding the recent close of a $68 billion merger between CVS Health and Aetna Inc. after learning CVS closed its acquisition before obtaining court approval of an antitrust settlement the companies reached with the government. In expressing skepticism over the merger, Leon cited opposition from the American Medical Association (AMA), which previously warned that the deal would lead to higher premium and out-of-pocket costs for patients purchasing drugs, as well as reduce the quality of health insurance. Leon chided the companies and the Justice Department for treating him like a “rubber stamp," complaining he was “being kept in the dark” about the closing of the merger. [33]
On February 15, 2019, Leon dismissed a lawsuit brought by the North American Butterfly Association against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seeking to prevent the building of a border wall through its National Butterfly Center, a 100-acre wildlife preserve in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. He said the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures "offers little refuge for unenclosed land near one of the country’s external borders" and that environmental review had been properly waived by the DHS. [34]
On July 19, 2019, Leon upheld the Trump administration's health insurance expansion that allowed companies to offer additional plans that do not meet the coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act. Leon rejected the claim by the Association for Community Affiliated Plans that the move to authorize short-term coverage plans was a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, and granted summary judgement to the government. The insurance companies plan to appeal. [35]
In November 2019 Leon ruled that President Barack Obama's proclamation that expanded the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon violated the Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant Lands Act of 1937. [36] In that case, American Forest Resource Council v. Hammond, Leon also held that the Bureau of Land Management had wrongly restricted commercial timber harvesting on the O&C Lands under the Northwest Forest Plan. Leon's decision was reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in July 2023. [37]
On December 30, 2019, the subject dismissed Charles M. Kupperman v United States House of Representatives, et al., a case, briefly, at the center of both the Trump–Ukraine scandal and the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump which became moot due to the subpoenas being withdrawn. [38] [39]
On March 29, 2022, Leon dismissed the Electronic Frontier Foundation's constitutional challenge against the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) in the case Woodhull Freedom Foundation, et al. v. U.S.; Leon upheld the constitutionality of the law and rejected the plaintiffs' arguments. [40] His ruling was affirmed by Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on July 07, 2023 following the Electronic Frontier Foundation's appeal. [41]
Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466 (2004), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court in which the Court held that foreign nationals held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could petition federal courts for writs of habeas corpus to review the legality of their detention. The Court's 6–3 judgment on June 28, 2004, reversed a D.C. Circuit decision which had held that the judiciary has no jurisdiction to hear any petitions from foreign nationals held in Guantanamo Bay.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi is a Mauritanian engineer who was detained at Guantánamo Bay detention camp without charge from 2002 until his release on October 17, 2016.
Arthur Raymond Randolph is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was appointed to the Court in 1990 and assumed senior status on November 1, 2008.
Bensayah Belkacem is a citizen of Bosnia, previously held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. Born in Algeria, he was arrested in his home in Bosnia, on October 8, 2001, shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Thomas B. Wilner is the managing partner of Shearman & Sterling's International Trade and Global Relations Practice. Wilner has also represented the high-profile human rights cases of a dozen Kuwaiti citizens detained in the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
John Deacon Bates is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was appointed by President George W. Bush in December 2001, and has adjudicated several cases directly affecting the office of the President. Bates served as Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, from July 1, 2013 to January 5, 2015, after which he returned to full-time service as a District Judge.
Abu Bakker Qassim, et al. v. George W. Bush, et al. (05-5477), is a case in which two Muslim Uyghurs challenged their detention at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
Moath Hamza Ahmed al-Alwi is a citizen of Yemen, held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps, in Cuba. His detainee ID number is 28. Guantanamo analysts estimated he was born in 1977, in Al Hudaydah, Yemen.
Boumediene v. Bush, 553 U.S. 723 (2008), was a writ of habeas corpus petition made in a civilian court of the United States on behalf of Lakhdar Boumediene, a naturalized citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, held in military detention by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camps in Cuba. Guantánamo Bay is not formally part of the United States, and under the terms of the 1903 lease between the United States and Cuba, Cuba retained ultimate sovereignty over the territory, while the United States exercises complete jurisdiction and control. The case was consolidated with habeas petition Al Odah v. United States. It challenged the legality of Boumediene's detention at the United States Naval Station military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as well as the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Oral arguments on the combined cases were heard by the Supreme Court on December 5, 2007.
Al Odah v. United States is a court case filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and co-counsels challenging the legality of the continued detention as enemy combatants of Guantanamo detainees. It was consolidated with Boumediene v. Bush (2008), which is the lead name of the decision.
In United States law, habeas corpus is a recourse challenging the reasons or conditions of a person's detention under color of law. The Guantanamo Bay detention camp is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. A persistent standard of indefinite detention without trial and incidents of torture led the operations of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to be challenged internationally as an affront to international human rights, and challenged domestically as a violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth amendments of the United States Constitution, including the right of petition for habeas corpus. On 19 February 2002, Guantanamo detainees petitioned in federal court for a writ of habeas corpus to review the legality of their detention.
David H. Remes is an American lawyer.
Parhat v. Gates, 532 F.3d 834, was a case involving a petition for review under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 filed on behalf of Huzaifa Parhat, and sixteen other Uyghur detainees held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.
Bismullah v. Gates is a writ of habeas corpus appeal in the United States Justice System, on behalf of Bismullah —an Afghan detainee held by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. It was one of over 200 habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of detainees held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.
Kiyemba v. Bush (Civil Action No. 05-cv-01509) is a petition for habeas corpus filed on behalf of Jamal Kiyemba, a Ugandan citizen formerly held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Mr. Kiyemba is the next friend of each of the nine Uighur petitioners, Abdusabur, Abdusamad, Abdunasir, Hammad, Hudhaifa, Jalaal, Khalid, Saabir, and Saadiq, who seek the writ of habeas corpus through the petition
Guantanamo Bay detainees have been allowed to initiate appeals in Washington, D.C., courts since the passage of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) closed off the right of Guantanamo captives to submit new petitions of habeas corpus. It substituted a right to a limited appeal to Federal Courts of appeal in Washington, D.C. The Act allowed detainees to challenge whether their Combatant Status Review Tribunals had correctly followed the rules laid out by the Department of Defense.
Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed, and Jamal Al-Harith, four former Guantánamo Bay detainees, filed suit in 2004 in the United States District Court in Washington, DC against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. They charged that illegal interrogation tactics were permitted to be used against them by Secretary Rumsfeld and the military chain of command. The plaintiffs each sought seek compensatory damages for torture and arbitrary detention while being held at Guantánamo.
Shayana D. Kadidal is an American lawyer and writer. Kadidal has worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City since 2001, and is senior managing attorney of the Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative there, coordinating legal representation for the captives held in extrajudicial detention in the United States' Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. Previously a writer on patent, drug and obscenity law, since 2001 he has played a role in various notable human rights cases, including:
Ricardo Manuel Urbina is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
Karen LeCraft Henderson is an American lawyer and jurist serving since 1990 as a U.S. circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She previously was a U.S. district judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina from 1986 to 1990.