Sri Srinivasan | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2013 | |
| Chief Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | |
| Assumed office February 11, 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Merrick Garland |
| Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | |
| Assumed office May 24, 2013 | |
| Appointed by | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | A. Raymond Randolph |
| Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States | |
| In office August 26, 2011 – May 24, 2013 | |
| President | Barack Obama |
| Preceded by | Neal Katyal |
| Succeeded by | Ian Heath Gershengorn |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Padmanabhan Srikanth Srinivasan (1967-02-23)February 23, 1967 (age 58) |
| Education | Stanford University (BA,JD,MBA) |
Padmanabhan Srikanth "Sri"Srinivasan[1] (/ˈsriːˌsriːniˈvɑːsən/; born February 23, 1967) is an Indian-born American lawyer and jurist serving since 2020 as thechief United States circuit judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.[2][3] Before becoming a federal judge, Srinivasan served asprincipal deputy solicitor general of the United States and argued 25 cases before theUnited States Supreme Court. He was also a partner at the law firmO'Melveny & Myers and was a lecturer atHarvard Law School.
In 2016, Srinivasan was considered by PresidentBarack Obama as a potential nominee to theSupreme Court of the United States after the death ofAntonin Scalia;[4] Obama nominatedMerrick Garland instead.
Srinivasan was born on February 23, 1967, inChandigarh,India. His parents wereBrahminIyerHinduTamils. His father, Thirunankovil Padmanabhan Srinivasan, was fromMela Thiruvenkatanathapuram, a village nearTirunelveli,Tamil Nadu. Srinivasan's family first came to the United States in the late 1960s when his father was aFulbright scholar at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. After briefly returning to India, the family permanently immigrated to the United States in 1971 when Srinivasan was four years old.[5][6] They settled inLawrence, Kansas, where his father became a professor ofmathematics at theUniversity of Kansas. His mother, Saroja, taught at theKansas City Art Institute and later worked at the University of Kansas'scomputer science department.[7]
Srinivasan graduated fromLawrence High School in 1985, where he played on the school basketball team alongside futureNBA starDanny Manning.[7] He then attendedStanford University, graduating in 1989 with aBachelor of Arts degree withdistinction. From 1989 to 1991, Srinivasan worked as a management analyst for theSan Mateo County county manager's office.[8] He then jointly attendedStanford Law School and theStanford Graduate School of Business, receiving aJD–MBA in 1995. As a law student, he was an editor of theStanford Law Review and graduated withOrder of the Coif honors.[7]
After law school, Srinivasan was alaw clerk for JudgeJ. Harvie Wilkinson III of theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1995 to 1996. He did a one-year fellowship in the Department of Justice's Office of the Solicitor General from 1996 to 1997, then clerked for U.S. Supreme Court justiceSandra Day O'Connor from 1997 to 1998.[7]
From 1998 to 2002, Srinivasan was in private practice as anassociate at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers. He then returned to the Office of the Solicitor General, where he worked from 2002 until 2007. He rejoined O'Melveny & Myers in 2007 as a partner, and was the firm's hiring partner for itsWashington, D.C. office.[9] While at the firm, he representedExxonMobil foraccusations of human rights abuses by hired military personnel at an Indonesian gas plant.[10] In 2010, he represented former Enron executiveJeffrey Skilling inhis appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, which challenged the"honest services" fraud statute and also that Skilling's trial was never moved fromHouston.[11] The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Skilling on the "honest services fraud" statute, but rejected the trial location argument.[12]
Srinivasan also was a lecturer atHarvard Law School, where he co-taught a course on Supreme Court and appellate advocacy.[9] In 2005 he received theOffice of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence from theUnited States Department of Defense.[13]
On August 26, 2011, Srinivasan was appointed to replaceNeal Katyal as Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States.[2] As of May 2013, Srinivasan had argued 25 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Earlier in his career, he also performedpro bono work for presidential candidateAl Gore during the aftermath of the2000 presidential election.[14]
In 2013, he was part of the legal team that presented arguments before the Supreme Court against theDefense of Marriage Act in the case ofUnited States v. Windsor.[15] He left the Solicitor General's office on May 24, 2013, when he was commissioned as a federal judge.
In March 2010,National Review bloggerEdward Whelan wrote that the Obama administration had been considering nominating Srinivasan to one of two vacancies on theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and that the idea of nominating Srinivasan had run into opposition from some Obama supporters because of Srinivasan's work in the U.S. Solicitor General's office during the Bush administration, and union animosity to Srinivasan's corporate clients in private practice.[16]
In June 2012, Obama nominated Srinivasan to the seat on the D.C. Circuit.[17] On January 2, 2013, his nomination was returned to the President, due to thesine die adjournment of the Senate; the next day he was renominated to the same office.[18]
His Senate confirmation hearing on April 10, 2013 was uneventful.[19] His nomination was reported out of committee on May 16, 2013, by a 18–0 vote.[20] A final vote on his nomination took place on May 23, 2013, where he was confirmed by a 97–0 vote.[6][21][22] He received his commission on May 24, 2013.[1] He took the oath of office before Chief JudgeMerrick Garland in June.[23] At his formal swearing-in ceremony in September, administered by retired Supreme Court justiceSandra Day O'Connor, he took the oath on the Hindu holy bookBhagavad Gita[24] and became the first federal appellate judge ofSouth Asian descent.[25] He became Chief Judge on February 11, 2020.[26]
In April 2013,Mother Jones suggested that Srinivasan ultimately might be nominated by President Obama for theSupreme Court of the United States;[41] during the same month,Jeffrey Toobin also opined that should he be confirmed for theD.C. Circuit, he would be Obama's next nominee to the Supreme Court.[42] If he had been nominated, he would have been the firstIndian American, firstAsian American and firstHindu candidate for the Supreme Court.[43]
Following the death of Supreme Court JusticeAntonin Scalia on February 13, 2016, Srinivasan was again widely speculated to be among the most likely contenders to be appointed to fill the seat, prior to the nomination ofMerrick Garland.[44][45] After Senate Majority LeaderMitch McConnell threatened to refuse to consider any Obama appointee to fill the seat in an election year, and split political parties in government, it was thought that Srinivasan, who was confirmed 97–0 in 2013, would be politically difficult to block, had he been nominated.[46][47]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 2013–present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Chief Judge of theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 2020–present | |
| International | |
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| National | |
