Willett was born on July 16,1966,in Dallas,Texas. He grew up in Talty in Kaufman County. His adoptive father died at the age of 40,when Willett was six,and he and his older sister,Donna,were reared by their mother,Doris,who waited tables to support the family.[2] Neither of Willett's parents finished high school. Willett attended public schools in Forney in Kaufman County,graduating in 1984. He then became his family's first college graduate.[3]
In April 1996,Willett joined then-Governor George W. Bush's administration as Director of Research and Special Projects,advising on various legal and policy issues. In 2000–2001,Willett worked on the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign and transition team. In the White House,Willett was Special Assistant to the President and Director of Law and Policy for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives (WHOFBCI). He drafted the first two executive orders of the Bush presidency,one creating the WHOFBCI and the other creating related offices in five cabinet agencies. In early 2002,Willett was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Office of Legal Policy at the United States Department of Justice,where he helped coordinate the selection and confirmation of federal judges. He also supervised policy initiatives such as the PROTECT Act of 2003 to combat child abduction and exploitation. Willett also led the development of an executive order to expedite U.S. citizenship for immigrant service members fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.[4]
He returned to Texas in early 2003 to become Deputy Texas Attorney General for Legal Counsel in the office of newly elected Texas Attorney GeneralGreg Abbott. As the attorney general's chief legal counsel,Willett led the agency's core legal divisions (opinion committee,open records,general counsel,public finance,intergovernmental relations,and litigation technical support). In addition to giving the attorney general legal advice on various issues,Willett also helped with select litigation,including efforts to protect the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas Capitol grounds and also the Pledge of Allegiance when it was challenged for including the words "under God."[4]
Willett was serving in this Deputy Attorney General position when he was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in August 2005.[5]
Willett sits on the advisory board for the Honors College at his alma mater,Baylor University,which named Willett a Distinguished Young Alumnus in 2005. He also served on the national steering committee for Baylor's proposal to secure the Bush Presidential Library. Willett is on the national advisory board for ConSource (The Constitutional Sources Project),a free,online library of U.S. founding-era source material. For Constitution Day 2008,Willett authored a commentary in the Austin American-Statesman highlighting ConSource and its nonprofit educational mission to make these historical documents accessible to teachers,students,academics,lawyers and judges. Willett is a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation,the Austin Bar Foundation,and is a member of the American Law Institute.
Texas Supreme Court
2006 election
Willett was one of five incumbent justices on the 2006 ballot,but he was the only one who faced opposition;his four colleagues were unopposed in both the March 7 primary and the November 7 general elections. In the March primary,Willett narrowly defeated former Justice Steven Wayne Smith,who sought to regain the seat on the Court that he had lost in the 2004 Republican primary to Justice Paul Green. In the general election,Willett won 51% of the votes and defeated Democratic Party nominee Bill Moody,who got 45% (2.12 million votes to Moody's 1.87 million).
2012 election
Willett defeated an intraparty challenge from Steve Smith in the May 29,2012,Republican primary,but the contest attracted little attention. The publication Texas Conservative Review endorsed Willett and described the Smith campaign as "lackluster." The Review wrote that Smith seemed more intent in seeking "revenge for past losses than making a positive impact" on the high court.[6]
In the general election,Willett received 4,758,725 votes (78.8 percent) to 1,280,900 votes (21.2 percent) for the Libertarian nominee,R. S. Roberto Koelsch.[7]
According to SCOTUSblog,in the 2012 election "Willett embraced Twitter as a way to get his campaign message across,and Twitter embraced him back."[4]
Tenure
Willett authored several notable decisions over the course of his service on the Texas high court,all of which can be found on the Court's official website and on Google Scholar.[8] All Texas Supreme Court justices have liaison assignments to help improve different aspects of the civil justice system. Willett was liaison to the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism,the Task Force to Ensure Judicial Readiness in Times of Emergency,and the Court Reporters Certification Board.
In May 2016,Willett appeared on presidential candidate Donald Trump's list of potential U.S. Supreme Court justices.[9]
On November 15,2017,a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[13] On December 7,2017,Willett's nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote.[14] On December 12,2017,the United States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 50–48 vote.[15] On December 13,2017,his nomination was confirmed by a 50–47 vote.[16][17] He received his judicial commission on January 2,2018,[1] and was sworn in the same day.[18]
Willett was considered a potential Supreme Court nominee for President Donald Trump.[19][20]
Judicial philosophy
According to SCOTUSblog,"Willett views the role of judges as protecting individual liberty by striking down laws that infringe on it." In addition,"Willett's belief in the primacy of individual liberty makes him a defender of religious as well as economic freedoms." SCOTUSblog described Willett as "more inclined to defer to the legislature in cases that he does not view as impinging on individual economic or religious liberty." Like Neil Gorsuch,Willett "has made a point of writing separately to declare his principles."[4]
In February 2019,Reason wrote that Willett had been "making a name for himself" in the area of criminal justice reform and that "it would appear that advocates of criminal justice reform have a new champion on the federal bench." Reason cited Willett's critique of the legal doctrine of qualified immunity,which shields government officials from being sued for discretionary actions performed within their official capacity.[21] In August 2018,Willett concurred dubitante when the court found that the Texas Medical Board was entitled to qualified immunity for an unconstitutional warrantless search it made of a doctor's patient records,writing:"To some observers,qualified immunity smacks of unqualified impunity,letting public officials duck consequences for bad behavior."[22][23]
Awards
Willett was named Outstanding Young Alumnus of Baylor University in 2005 and inducted into the Forney High School Hall of Honor in 2007. He has received the Faith and Integrity in Legal Services Award and the Austin Under 40 Award for Government and Public Affairs.
Willett received the Texas Review of Law and Politics's 2014 Distinguished Jurist of the Year Award. Each spring,the Texas Review of Law &Politics awards its Distinguished Jurist of the Year award to an individual who has made valuable contributions both to the journal and to conservative causes of national importance.
Personal life
Willett is a former rodeo bull rider.[4] He and his wife,Tiffany,married in 2000. They live in Austin,Texas,and have three children. Tiffany served as litigation director for a member of the Texas Senate,and in D.C. as education director for the White House Fellows. When they left the Bush administration in 2003 to return home to Texas,she worked for Texas CASA,which advocates for abused and neglected children in the court system.
Willett is known for his active Twitter presence,though he has only tweeted once since his appointment to the federal bench.[24] The Texas House of Representatives named him "Tweeter Laureate."[25]
Merrick Brian Garland is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as the 86th United States attorney general. He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 2021. In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Republican-led U.S. Senate effectively blocked Garland's appointment.
Steven Wayne Smith is a Republican former Texas Supreme Court justice, who was defeated for renomination in 2004 through the active opposition of then-Governor Rick Perry. He was unseated by Paul W. Green. Smith again lost – very narrowly – a bid for nomination to the court in the March 7, 2006, GOP primary, when Perry again opposed his candidacy.
Priscilla Richman is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the chief United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She was previously a justice of the Supreme Court of Texas from 1995 to 2005.
Steven Michael Colloton is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit since 2003. He became chief judge in March 2024.
Peter Douglas Keisler is an American lawyer whose 2006 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit became embroiled in partisan controversy. He is a partner at the firm of Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and used to be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. Upon the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, until November 9, 2007, he was also the Acting Attorney General of the United States.
David Ryan Stras is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He is a former Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Leslie Harburd Southwick is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and a former judge of the Mississippi Court of Appeals.
Amul Roger Thapar is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He previously served as a U.S. district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky from 2008 to 2017 and as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky from 2006 to 2008. Thapar was President Donald Trump's first Court of Appeals appointment and Trump's second judicial appointment after Justice Neil Gorsuch. Thapar was discussed as a candidate for the Supreme Court of the United States.
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.
With the advice and consent of the United States Senate, the president of the United States appoints the members of the Supreme Court of the United States, which is the highest court of the federal judiciary of the United States. Following his victory in the 2016 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump took office as president on January 20, 2017, and faced an immediate vacancy on the Supreme Court due to the February 2016 death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia.
Ryan Douglas Nelson is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He was previously nominated to become Solicitor of the United States Department of the Interior, but was never confirmed.
Gregory George Katsas is an American lawyer and jurist serving since 2017 as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Before becoming a federal judge, Katsas served as Deputy White House Counsel to President Donald Trump, as an Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a partner at the law firm Jones Day.
James Chiun-Yue Ho is a Taiwanese-born American lawyer and jurist serving since 2018 as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was appointed by President Donald Trump. Ho formerly served as Solicitor General of Texas from 2008 to 2010.
Britt Cagle Grant is an American attorney and judge who is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. She is a former Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia.
Donald Trump, President of the United States from 2017 to 2021, entered office with a significant number of judicial vacancies, including a Supreme Court vacancy due to the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016. During the first eight months of his presidency, he nominated approximately 50 judges, a significantly higher number than any other recent president had made by that point in his presidency. By June 24, 2020, 200 of his Article III nominees had been confirmed by the United States Senate. According to multiple media outlets, Trump significantly impacted the composition of the Supreme Court and lower courts during his tenure.
John Baylor Nalbandian is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was previously a partner in the Cincinnati office of Taft Stettinius & Hollister.
Andrew Stephen Oldham is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and former General Counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Eric David Miller is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Daniel Paul Collins is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Brantley David Starr is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
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.
