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Michael W. McConnell
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Michael W. McConnell (born May 18, 1955 in Louisville, Kentucky) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and a constitutional law scholar.
nnell graduated from Michigan State University's James Madison College in 1976. McConnell received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1979, where he served on law review. He was a law clerk for James Skelly Wright, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1979-1980, and for Associate Justice William Brennan, Supreme Court of the United States, 1980-1981. He was an assistant general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget, 1981-1983, and an assistant to the Solicitor General, U.S.
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Encyclopedia
Michael W. McConnell (born May 18, 1955 in Louisville, Kentucky) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and a constitutional law scholar.
Background
McConnell graduated from Michigan State University's James Madison College in 1976. McConnell received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 1979, where he served on law review. He was a law clerk for James Skelly Wright, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1979-1980, and for Associate Justice William Brennan, Supreme Court of the United States, 1980-1981. He was an assistant general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget, 1981-1983, and an assistant to the Solicitor General, U.S. Department of Justice, 1983-1985. McConnell was a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, 1985-1996, where he brought Harvard Law graduate Barack Obama on a fellowship after being impressed with a suggestion Obama, then Harvard Law Review president, had made on one of McConnell's articles.McConnell has been professor at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, 1997 to the present.
As a law professor, Judge McConnell published a variety of legal articles and edited several books. As a lawyer, he argued cases in federal courts of appeals and before the Supreme Court, including a 5-4 victory in Rosenberger v. University of Virginia. He is widely regarded as one of the preeminent constitutional law scholars on the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses.
In 1996, again as a law professor, 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."
As a respected constitutional scholar during his law school tenure, McConnell contended that originalism is consistent with the Supreme Court's 1955 desegregation decision Brown v. Board of Education, against critics of originalism who argue that they are inconsistent. McConnell has likewise argued that the Court's decision in Bolling v. Sharpe was correct, but should have been reached on other grounds, because Congress never "required that the schools of the District of Columbia be segregated."
His academic scholarship includes, among other publications, the following:
Tenth Circuit nomination and confirmation
McConnell was nominated by President George W. Bush on September 4, 2001 to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on November 15, 2002 by voice vote. Judge McConnell remains a professor at the University of Utah College of Law and has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School (2006 and 2009) and at Stanford Law School (2007 and 2008).
While sitting on the Tenth Circuit, Judge McConnell has written scores of judicial opinions. The Supreme Court has reviewed three cases in which Judge McConnell wrote an opinion; in each case the Court has reached the same result as the opinion by Judge McConnell. First, in , a case involving the religious use of a hallucinogenic tea, the Supreme Court affirmed 8-0 a Tenth Circuit en banc decision to which . Second, in , a case involving the retroactive application of a statutory provision limiting appeals from immigration removal orders, the Supreme Court affirmed 8-1 . Third, in , a case involving 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 Judge McConnell .
Other significant opinions written by Judge McConnell include the following:
Criminal Sentencing
Equal Protection
The Religion Clauses
Other
Since his confirmation to the Tenth Circuit, Judge McConnell has also continued to publish on legal topics. His most recent articles are , a review in the Harvard Law Review of Justice Breyer's book Active Liberty and, in the Denver University Law Review, .
Supreme Court speculation
McConnell was mentioned as a potential nominee to the Supreme Court during the administration of PresidentGeorge W. Bush. 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 that McConnell was, "high on the White House's short list" because:
- [McConnell] does believe that the Supreme Court has gone too far in reading the total separation of church and state into the Constitution, and because he ...understands that Roe v. Wade has no firm constitutional foundation. He might be acceptable to the left not only because so many liberal professors support him, but also because he has been public in his criticism of Bush v. Gore and the impeachment of President Clinton.
McConnell was also mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee in a John McCain presidency.
See also
External links
- - McConnell's Faculty Profile at the University of Utah
- - "Separation of Church & State" TV Interview
- - "Separation of Church & State" audio mp3
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