Richard Allen Griffin

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Richard Allen Griffin
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Assumed office
June 10, 2005
Appointed byGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byDamon Keith
Personal details
Born (1952-04-15) April 15, 1952 (age 72)
Traverse City, Michigan, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
EducationWestern Michigan University (BA)
University of Michigan (JD)

Richard Allen Griffin (born April 15, 1952) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Previously, he was a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Griffin was first nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit by President George W. Bush on June 26, 2002, to a seat vacated by Judge Damon Keith as Keith assumed senior status. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 9, 2005, and received commission on June 10, 2005.

Background

Griffin, born in

magna cum laude from Western Michigan University in 1971 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School
in 1977.

Beginning in 1989, he served as a judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals (Third District). During part of that time his father was a Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court.

Federal judicial service

On June 26, 2002, Bush nominated Griffin to a Michigan seat on the

Senate Judiciary Committee by then chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy, D-VT. In its assessment of his nomination, the Independent Judiciary project of the liberal group Alliance for Justice
described Griffin as a "deeply conservative jurist".

In the 2002 midterm congressional elections, the

Senate Judiciary Committee began to process the previously blocked four nominees. In March 2003, Michigan's two Democratic senators, Carl Levin (who defeated Griffin's father, Robert P. Griffin, in his bid for re-election in 1978) and Debbie Stabenow announced that they would blue-slip all Bush judicial nominees from Michigan because Bush refused to renominate Helene White and Kathleen McCree Lewis, two Michigan nominees to the Sixth Circuit whose nominations the Senate Republicans had refused to process during President Bill Clinton's second term. Helene White at the time was married to Levin's cousin.[1]

Contrary to Levin's and Stabenow's wishes, Hatch gave Saad, McKeague and Griffin committee hearings, and passed the three nominees out of committee. Furious, Levin and Stabenow convinced their caucus to filibuster the three in order to prevent them from having confirmation votes.

109th Congress. Tensions between the Republicans and Democrats rose dramatically as the Republicans, unable to end debate through cloture, considered breaking the filibusters of ten Bush court of appeals nominees (including Saad, McKeague and Griffin) by using the nuclear option. In order to defuse the volatile situation, fourteen moderate Republican and Democratic senators called the Gang of 14 joined together to forge an agreement to guarantee certain filibustered nominations up or down votes. Henry Saad and William Myers
, however, were expressly excluded from the deal.

As part of the Gang of 14 Deal, Griffin was eventually confirmed on June 9, 2005 by a 95–0 vote.[2] In the end, both Levin and Stabenow voted in favor of his confirmation. McKeague was confirmed on the same day. He received his commission on June 10, 2005.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Byron York on Bush Judges & Senate on National Review Online". www.nationalreview.com. Archived from the original on 2003-04-01.
  2. ^ "On the Nomination (Confirmation Richard A. Griffin, of Michigan, to be U.S. Circuit Judge)".
  3. ^ Richard Allen Griffin at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
2005–present 		Incumbent
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