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Michael Mukasey

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MZMcBride (talk | contribs) at 20:31, 20 September 2007 (moved Michael B. Mukasey to Michael Mukasey: keeps in line with other high-profile politicians: John Roberts, Alberto Gonzales, Henry Paulson, et al.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Michael B. Mukasey
Judge Michael Mukasey speaks after being nominated to be Attorney General.
Chief Judge, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
In office
2000 – August 1 2006
Preceded byThomas P. Griesa[1]
Succeeded byKimba Wood
Judge, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
In office
November 9 1987 – September 9 2006
Nominated byRonald Reagan
Preceded byAbraham D. Sofaer[2]
Succeeded byRichard Sullivan
Personal details
Born (1941-07-28) July 28, 1941 (age 83)[3]
Bronx, New York[2]
Political partyRepublican
SpouseSusan Mukasey
ChildrenMarc and Jessica
Residence(s)Manhattan, New York
Alma materColumbia University
Yale Law School
OccupationLawyer

Michael Bernard Mukasey[4] (IPA: /mju.ˈkeɪ.zi/[5]) (born July 28, 1941)[3] is an American lawyer who, for 18 years, served as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, six of those years as Chief Judge. On September 17 2007, President George W. Bush nominated Mukasey to serve as the 81st Attorney General of the United States, succeeding Alberto Gonzales.[6][7] Mukasey has received several awards, most notably the Learned Hand Medal[8] of the Federal Bar Council.

Personal background

Mukasey graduated in 1959 from the Ramaz School, a Modern Orthodox Jewish prep school in Manhattan. His wife, Susan, was a teacher and headmistress of the lower school at Ramaz and both of their children (Marc[9] and Jessica[10]) attended the school.[11]

Mukasey graduated from Columbia University, where he was the op-ed page editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator,[12] receiving his B.A. in 1963, and Yale Law School, receiving his LL.B. in 1967. He practiced law for 20 years in New York City, serving for four years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the federal prosecutor's office[2] in which he worked with Rudolph Giuliani. In 1976, he joined the New York law firm of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, to which he returned after retirement from the U.S. District Court.[13]

Mukasey's son, Marc L. Mukasey, leads the white-collar criminal defense practice in the New York office of Bracewell & Giuliani.[14] The Mukaseys have a professional relationship with Rudy Giuliani; Mukasey and son are also justice advisers to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign.[15] Mukasey swore in Mayor-elect Giuliani in 1994 and 1998.[15]

Judicial career

In 1987, Mukasey was nominated as a federal district judge in Manhattan by President Ronald Reagan; he took the bench in 1988. He served in that position for 18 years, including a tenure as Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York from 2000 through July 2006.

During his tenure on the bench, Mukasey presided over the criminal prosecution of Omar Abdel Rahman and El Sayyid Nosair, whom he sentenced to life in prison for a plot to blow up the United Nations and other Manhattan landmarks uncovered during an investigation into the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[13] During that case, Mukasey spoke out against leaks by law enforcement officials regarding the facts of the case allegedly aimed at prejudicing potential jurors against the defendants.[16]

Mukasey also heard the trial of Jose Padilla, ruling that the U.S. citizen and alleged terrorist could be held as an enemy combatant but was entitled to see his lawyers. Mukasey also was the judge in the litigation between developer Larry Silverstein and several insurance companies arising from the destruction of the World Trade Center.[13] In a 2003 suit, he issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Motion Picture Association of America from enforcing its ban against the distribution of screener copies of films during awards season, ruling that the ban was likely an unlawful restraint of trade unfair to independent filmmakers.

In June 2003, Democratic New York Senator Charles Schumer submitted Mukasey's name, along with four other Republicans or Republican appointees, as a suggestion for Bush to consider for nomination to the Supreme Court.[17]

In May 2004, while still a member of the judiciary, Judge Mukasey delivered a speech (which he converted into a Wall Street Journal opinion piece) that defended the Patriot Act; the piece also doubted that the FBI engaged in racial profiling of Arabs and criticized the American Library Association for condemning the Patriot Act but not taking a position on librarians imprisoned in Cuba.[18]

On October 14, 2004, citing U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Mukasey reversed his September 2002 decision and dismissed a case in which plaintiffs in twenty consolidated actions sued the Italian insurance company Generali S.p.A. (Generali), seeking damages for nonpayment of insurance proceeds to beneficiaries of policies purchased by Holocaust victims before the end of World War II.[19]

Retirement

Although Article III of the U.S. Constitution entitles district court judges to hold their judicial appointments for life, in June 2006 Mukasey announced that he would retire as a judge and return to private practice at the end of the summer. On August 1, 2006, he was succeeded as Chief Judge of the Southern District by Judge Kimba Wood. Mukasey's retirement took effect on September 9, 2006. On September 12, 2006, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler announced that Mukasey had rejoined the firm as a partner. [20]

On the March 18, 2007, episode of Meet the Press, Schumer suggested Mukasey as a potential Attorney General nominee who, "by [his] reputation and character, shows that [he] put rule of law first."[21]

On August 22 2007, the Wall Street Journal published Mukasey's op-ed, prompted by the resolution of the Padilla prosecution, in which he argued that "current institutions and statutes are not well suited to even the limited task of supplementing . . . a military effort to combat Islamic terrorism." Mukasey instead advocated for Congress, which "has the constitutional authority to establish additional inferior courts," to "turn [its] considerable talents to deliberating how to fix a strained and mismatched legal system."[22]

Since retiring from the bench, Mukasey has made campaign contributions to Giuliani for president and Joe Lieberman for Senate.[23] Mukasey is also listed on the Giuliani campaign's Justice Advisory Committee.[24]

Nomination as Attorney General

President George W. Bush listens to remarks by Judge Michael Mukasey after announcing his nomination to be Attorney General.

On September 16 2007, various publications reported that Mukasey accepted Bush's offer to replace Alberto Gonzales as the Attorney General.[6] He was nominated by the President on September 17, 2007. At his nomination press conference with the President, Mukasey stated, "...The task of helping to protect our security, which the Justice Department shares with the rest of our government, is not the only task before us. The Justice Department must also protect the safety of our children, the commerce that assures our prosperity, and the rights and liberties that define us as a nation."[25]

If confirmed, Judge Mukasey would be the second Jewish person to become Attorney General. The first was Edward H. Levi.[26]

References

  1. ^ NYCLA Committee On The Federal Courts (December 2002). "The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York: A Retrospective (1990-2000)" (PDF). New York County Lawyers’ Association. pp. page 10. Retrieved 2007-09-17. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  2. ^ a b c "Mukasey, Michael B." Judges of the United States Courts. Federal Judicial Center. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  3. ^ a b "Mukasey is outsider with inside track". USA Today. 2007-09-17. Retrieved 2007-09-18. {{cite news}}: |first= missing |last= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing pipe in: |first= (help)
  4. ^ "Franklin Stone Weds David Howard Wenk". New York Times. 1988-05-15. Retrieved 2007-09-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ See inogolo:pronunciation of Michael Mukasey.
  6. ^ a b Abramowitz, Michael (2007-09-17). "Ex-Judge Is Said to Be Pick At Justice". The Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved 2007-09-17. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ King, John (2007-09-17). "Bush nominates ex-judge to replace Gonzales". CNN. Retrieved 2007-09-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Mukasey, Michael B. (2004-05-10). "The Spirit of Liberty". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  9. ^ Storey, Jeff (2001). "Making a Real Difference in Criminal Law". Cardozo Life. Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Retrieved 2007-09-15. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  10. ^ "Kehilath Jeshurun Bulletin" (PDF). Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun. 1999-06-18. pp. page 19. Retrieved 2007-09-17. {{cite web}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Heller, Jamie. "Mukasey’s Pedigree", The Wall Street Journal Online, Law Blog, September 17, 2007. Accessed September 17, 2007. "Mukasey graduated from Ramaz in 1959 and went on to Columbia College and Yale Law School."
  12. ^ http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2007/09/17/mukasey-as-college-journalist/
  13. ^ a b c Goldstein, Joseph (2006-07-26). "As Judge Leaves for Law Firm, His Influence Is Remembered". The New York Sun. Retrieved 2007-09-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ "Marc L. Mukasey". Bracewell & Giuliani. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
  15. ^ a b Barrett, Devlin (September 17, 2007). "Mukasey Has Long Terror Resume". via Google News. Associated Press. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  16. ^ "Judge Warns about Leaks in Bomb Case, New York Times, July 31, 1993"
  17. ^ "Letter to President George W. Bush" (Press release). Senator Charles E. Schumer. 2003-06-10. Retrieved 2007-09-15. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) The others were Reagan-appointed federal appellate judges Ann Williams and Stanley Marcus, Bush-appointed Fifth Circuit judge Edward Prado, and Arlen Specter, the Republican senator from Pennsylvania.
  18. ^ Mukasey, Michael B. (2004-05-10). "The Spirit of Liberty". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  19. ^ Michael J. Bazyler and Kearston G. Everitt, International Civil Liberties Report, HOLOCAUST RESTITUTION LITIGATION IN THE UNITED STATES: AN UPDATE, pp. 1-2, citing In re: Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. Holocaust Ins. Litig., 2004 WL 2311298 at *5 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 14, 2004).
  20. ^ "Former Southern District Chief Judge Michael B. Mukasey Rejoins Patterson Belknap" (Press release). Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. 2006-09-12. Retrieved 2007-09-15. {{cite press release}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ "Meet the Press transcript for March 18, 2007". MSNBC. 2007-03-18. Retrieved 2007-09-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Schumer also suggested former Justice Department officials Larry Thompson and James Comey.
  22. ^ Mukasey, Michael (2007-08-22). "Jose Padilla Makes Bad Law". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-09-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ "Michael Mukasey's Federal Campaign Contribution Report". Newsmeat.com.
  24. ^ "Giuliani Legal Team". Chicago Tribune. 2007-09-06. Retrieved 2007-09-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  25. ^ President Bush Announces Judge Michael Mukasey as Nominee for Attorney General , White House press release, dated September 17, 2007. Accessed September 18, 2007.
  26. ^ "Orthodox Jew tapped to replace Gonzalez". JTA. 2007-09-17.
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