Patricia Millett | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | |
| Assumed office December 10, 2013 | |
| Appointed by | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | John Roberts |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 1963 (age 62) Dexter, Maine, U.S. |
| Education | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (BA) Harvard University (JD) |
Patricia Ann Millett (/mɪˈlɛt/ ⓘ; born September 1963) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as aUnited States circuit judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She formerly headed the Supreme Court practice at the law firmAkin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Millett also was a longtime former assistant to theUnited States Solicitor General and occasional writer forSCOTUSblog. At the time of her confirmation to the D.C. Circuit, she had argued 32 cases before theUnited States Supreme Court—once the record for a female lawyer.[1][2] In February 2016,The New York Times identified her as a potential nominee to replace JusticeAntonin Scalia.[3]
Millett's 2013 nomination to the D.C. Circuit, along with the nominations ofRobert L. Wilkins andNina Pillard, ultimately became central to the debate over the use of thefilibuster in the United States Senate, leading to the use of the so-called "nuclear option" to bring it to the Senate floor for a vote.
Millett was born in 1963 inDexter, Maine,[4] and grew up inMarine, Illinois. Her father was historian and authorRichard L. Millett.[5] She graduated from theUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1985 with aBachelor of Arts,summa cum laude, inpolitical science, and then fromHarvard Law School in 1988 with aJuris Doctor,magna cum laude.[1][6]
From 1988 to 1990, Millett was in private practice in the litigation department of theWashington, D.C. law firmMiller & Chevalier. She then was alaw clerk for JudgeThomas Tang of theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1990 to 1992.[1] From 1992 to 1996, Millett worked for theUnited States Department of Justice Civil Division's appellate staff, briefing and arguing more than 20 cases before federal appeals courts and occasionally state appeals courts.[1]
In August 1996, Millett became an assistant to theUnited States Solicitor General, a position she held until September 2007. During that time, Millett argued 25 cases before theUnited States Supreme Court and briefed more than 50 others.[1] She authored the Solicitor General's brief in pathbreaking cases includingTennessee v. Lane (successfully defending the constitutionality of Title II of theAmericans with Disabilities Act) andNevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs (successfully defending the constitutionality of theFamily and Medical Leave Act).[7]
In 2007, Millett joined the Washington, D.C. law firm ofAkin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, co-chairing the firm's Supreme Court practice along withTom Goldstein.[1] At Akin Gump, her victories includedSamantar v. Yousuf, in which she represented victims of torture who argued that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act did not grant immunity to former foreign government officials.
In October 2007, Millett began blogging atSCOTUSblog.[8][6]
In February 2009,Legal Times reported that Millett was one of fiveVirginia residents recommended by the voluntaryVirginia Bar Association lawyer organization to serve as a judge on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, along with Virginia state senatorJohn S. Edwards,Virginia Supreme Court JusticeBarbara Milano Keenan, thenUniversity of Virginia School of Law professorJames Ryan and formerVirginia Supreme Court JusticeJohn Thomas.[9] At that time, the Fourth Circuit had four judicial vacancies, one of which was a seat generally thought to belong to Virginia, and all five candidates were among a larger group of individuals who had proactively submitted their information to the VBA and ostensibly hoped to be considered for a nomination to the Fourth Circuit by PresidentBarack Obama.
On February 26, 2009, theVirginia State Bar separately deemed Millett to be "highly qualified" for the vacancy, along with Edwards, Keenan, and attorney Richard A. Simpson.[10] Keenan was nominated by President Obama to fill the vacancy on September 14, 2009, confirmed by the Senate on February 26, 2010, and sworn in on March 9, 2010.
On May 27, 2013, theNew York Times reported that President Obama was considering nominating Millett to one of three vacancies on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.[11]
On June 4, 2013, Obama nominated Millett to serve as a United States circuit judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to the seat vacated by JudgeJohn Roberts, who was elevated to theUnited States Supreme Court on September 25, 2005. TheUnited States Senate Committee on the Judiciary held hearing on her nomination on July 10, 2013,[12] and reported her nomination to the floor on August 1, 2013, by a 10–8 vote, entirely along party lines.[13][14][6]
On October 28, 2013, Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid motioned to invokecloture on Millett's nomination.[15] On October 31, 2013, the motion to invoke cloture was rejected by a 55–38 vote, with 3 senators voting "present."[16]
On November 21, 2013, the motion to invoke cloture was rejected again, by a 57–40 vote with 3 senators voting "present".[17] Amotion to reconsider the motion to invoke cloture was held shortly thereafter and was agreed to by a 57–43 vote.[18] Senator Reid then requested a ruling from the presiding officer regarding the filibuster of judicial nominees. ThePresident pro tempore ruled that the Senate required 60 votes to cut off a filibuster and move to a final vote. Senator Reid appealed that ruling and the Senate began voting on whether the President pro tempore's ruling should stand, setting up a vote on what is colloquially known as the "nuclear option." The ruling was not sustained by a 48–52 vote.[19] As a result of that vote, the President pro tempore ruled that as of November 21, 2013, the threshold for invoking cloture on all executive branch nominees, and all district and circuit court nominees would be a simple majority of senators present and voting. SenatorMitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, immediately requested an appeal of that ruling; that appeal failed by a 52–48 vote.[20] The Senate then began voting on the motion to invoke cloture under the new majority-vote threshold. Cloture was subsequently invoked on her nomination by a 55–43 vote with 2 senators voting "present".[21][22] On December 10, 2013, the Senate confirmed Millett by a 56–38 vote.[23] She received her commission the same day.[6]
After the death of Supreme Court justiceAntonin Scalia on February 13, 2016, Millett's name was among those mentioned by court-watchers as a possible successor.[24][25] President Obama ultimately nominated her D.C. Circuit colleague, JudgeMerrick Garland.[26]
In April 2018, Millett dissented when JudgeRobert L. Wilkins’s majority opinion found that aFederal Trade Commission staff letter rejecting an earlier staff letter and concluding that use ofsoundboard technology violates theTelemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act was not itself subject tojudicial review under theAdministrative Procedure Act.[27][28]
In November 2021, Millett dissented in a case that struck down theEPA's fuel efficiency standards for trailers on trucks.[29][30]
In December 2021, Millett wrote the majority opinion in a case brought by former presidentDonald Trump to block the release of presidential records that the congressional committee investigating theJanuary 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.[31]
Millett and her husband, Robert King, reside inAlexandria,Virginia.[9] She is active in AldersgateUnited Methodist Church and has a second degree black belt inTae Kwon Do, according to her answers to a questionnaire for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.[32] Her husband, King, is aNavy veteran who deployed forOperation Iraqi Freedom and thewar in Afghanistan.[33]
Media related toPatricia Millett at Wikimedia Commons
| Legal offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 2013–present | Incumbent |
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