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William Pryor

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William Pryor

Nonpartisan

United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit

Tenure

2005 - Present

Years in position

Education

Bachelor's

Northeast Louisiana University, 1984

Law

Tulane University Law School, 1987

Personal

Birthplace

Mobile, AL

Contact

Official website

William Holcomb Pryor, Jr. is thechief judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. He first joined the court on arecess appointment from former PresidentGeorge W. Bush (R) in 2004 and later received his commission as anArticle III judge in 2005. Prior to his appointment, Pryor was theattorney general ofAlabama.^[1]

Pryor succeededEd Carnes as thechief judge of the 11th Circuit in 2020.

Pryor was included on PresidentDonald Trump’s (R) June 2018 list of 25 potentialSupreme Court nominees to replace JusticeAnthony Kennedy on the court. Trump first released such a list during his 2016 presidential campaign and stated, “This list is definitive and I will choose only from it in picking future Justices of the United States Supreme Court.”^[2]^[3]

Early life and education

Born inMobile, Alabama, Pryor graduated from Northeast Louisiana University with his bachelor's degree in 1984 and from Tulane University Law School with hisJ.D. in 1987.^[1]

Professional career

2004 - Present: Judge,United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
- 2020 - Present: Chief judge
1997-2004:Attorney General of Alabama
1995-1997:Deputy attorney general,Alabama
1989-1995: Adjunct professor, Samford University's Cumberland School of Law
1988-1995: Private practice, Alabama
1987-1988: Law clerk, Hon.John Minor Wisdom,United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit^[1]

Judicial career

11th Circuit Court of Appeals

Recess appointment - 108th Congress

Pryor was nominated to theUnited States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit by PresidentGeorge W. Bush on April 9, 2003, to fill a seat vacated by JudgeEmmett Cox. After his nomination stalled in theU.S. Senate due toDemocratic opposition, Pryor was installed as judge viarecess appointment on February 20, 2004, bypassing the U.S. Senate confirmation process. Pryor resigned asattorney general of Alabama that same day and took his judicial oath for a term scheduled until the end of December 2005.^[1]^[4]

109th Congress

Nomination Tracker

Nominee Information
Name: William H. Pryor, Jr.
Court:United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
Progress
Confirmed 115 days after nomination.
ANominated: February 14, 2005
AABA Rating:Substantial Majority Qualified, Minority Well Qualified (1 abstention)
Questionnaire:
AHearing:

QFRs:(Hover over QFRs to read more)

AReported: May 12, 2005
AConfirmed: June 9, 2005
AVote: 53-45

Pryor was renominated during the 109th Congress to the seat on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to which Pryor received a recess appointment in the 108th Congress. TheAmerican Bar Association rated PryorSubstantial Majority Qualified, Minority Well Qualified for the nomination, with one abstention.^[5] Pryor had ahearing before theUnited States Senate Committee on the Judiciary during the 108th Congress on June 11, 2003, but did not receive a hearing in the 109th Congress. Pryor's nomination was reported by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) on May 12, 2005. Pryor was confirmed on a recorded 53-45 vote of theU.S. Senate on June 9, 2005, and he received his commission the next day. He becamechief judge of the court in 2020, succeedingEd Carnes.^[1]^[6]^[7]

Noteworthy cases

Title VII discrimination case (2017)

See also:United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit (Jameka K. Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, Charles Moss, et al., 15-15234)

JudgeWilliam Pryor wrote a concurring opinion in the case ofEvans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, which was decided by a three-judge panel of theEleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on March 10, 2017. In the case, the panel held that the circuit court's 1979 precedent,Blum v. Gulf Oil Corporation, bound the panel to hold that discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation did not violate Title VII of theCivil Rights Act. The fullEleventh Circuit declined to hear the caseen banc. Lambda Legal, which represented Evans before the circuit panel, announced they would appeal the case to theU.S. Supreme Court.

In his concurrence, Judge Pryor wrote separately "to explain the error of the argument of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the dissent that a person who experiences discrimination because of sexual orientation necessarily experiences discrimination for deviating from gender stereotypes."^[8] Judge Pryor elucidated his view of the difference between the two claims in his opinion. He wrote,^[8]

“

Although a person who experiences the former will sometimes also experience the latter, the two concepts are legally distinct. And the insistence otherwise by the Commission and the dissent relies on false stereotypes of gay individuals. ... The majority opinion correctly holds that a claim of discrimination for failure to conform to a gender stereotype is not 'just another way to claim discrimination based on sexual orientation.' ... Like any other woman, Evans can state a claim that she experienced, for example, discrimination for wearing a 'male haircut' if she includes enough factual allegations. ... But just as a woman cannot recover under Title VII when she is fired because of her heterosexuality, neither can a gay woman sue for discrimination based on her sexual orientation. Deviation from a particular gender stereotype may correlate disproportionately with a particular sexual orientation, and plaintiffs who allege discrimination on the basis of gender nonconformity will often also have experienced discrimination because of sexual orientation. ... But under Title VII, we ask only whether the individual experienced discrimination for deviating from a gender stereotype. ...

The doctrine of gender nonconformity is not an independent vehicle for relief; it is instead a proxy a plaintiff uses to help support her argument that an employer discriminated on the basis of the enumerated sex category by holding males and females to different standards of behavior. Because a claim of gender nonconformity is a behavior-based claim, not a status-based claim, a plaintiff still 'must show that the employer actually relied on her gender in making its decision.' ... the doctrine of gender nonconformity is not and cannot be an independent vehicle for relief because the only status-based classes that provide relief are those enumerated within Title VII.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]

”

Possible Donald Trump nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court

See also:Possible nominees to replace Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court

See also:Process to fill the vacated seat of Justice Antonin Scalia

2018

Pryor was listed by PresidentDonald Trump (R) as a potential Supreme Court nominee to replace JusticeAnthony Kennedy. Kennedy announced he would retire from the court effective July 31, 2018.^[13] Trump ultimately choseBrett Kavanaugh as the nominee.Click here to learn more.

2017

On November 17, 2017, Pryor was included in a third list of individuals from which PresidentDonald Trump would choose to fill vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court.

A White House statement announcing the nominees stated,^[14]

“

One year ago, President Donald J. Trump was elected to restore the rule of law and to Make the Judiciary Great Again. Following the successful confirmation of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of the United States and the nomination of more than seventy Federal judges—including five individuals from his Supreme Court list—President Trump today announced that he is refreshing his Supreme Court list with five additional judges. President Trump will choose a nominee for a future Supreme Court vacancy, should one arise, from this updated list of 25 individuals. The President remains deeply committed to identifying and selecting outstanding jurists in the mold of Justice Gorsuch. These additions, like those on the original list released more than a year ago, were selected with input from respected conservative leaders.^[12]

”

In a December 2016 study, scholars and attorneys Jeremy Kidd, Riddhi Sohan Dasgupta, Ryan Walter, and James Phillips identified Pryor as the third most natural successor to Justice Scalia based on a measure of their own design. Among Trump's known potential nominees, only JudgesThomas Lee of theSupreme Court of Utah andNeil Gorsuch of theTenth Circuit Court of Appeals had higher scores on the authors' measure.^[15]

Finalist

On January 24, 2017,Politico reported, per sources, that Pryor was one of three finalists forPresident Trump's nomination to succeed JusticeAntonin Scalia on theUnited States Supreme Court. On January 31, 2017, Trump nominated JudgeNeil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court.^[16]^[17]