Michael Mukasey
From Metapedia
Michael Bernard Mukasey (born July 28, 1941) is an American lawyer, presently the 81st Attorney General of the United States, and follows Alberto Gonzales, who resigned from office. Mukasey also served for 18 years as a judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, six of those years as Chief Judge. Mukasey is the second Jewish U.S. Attorney General, the first one being Edward H. Levi.
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[edit] Personal background
Mukasey graduated in 1959 from the Ramaz School, a Modern Orthodox Jewish prep school in Manhattan. His wife, Susan, was later a teacher and headmistress of the lower school at Ramaz, and both of their children (Marc and Jessica) attended the school.
Mukasey graduated from Columbia University, where he was the op-ed-page editor of the Columbia Daily Spectator, 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 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.
Mukasey's son, Marc L. Mukasey, leads the white-collar criminal defense practice in the New York office of Bracewell & Giuliani. The Mukaseys have a professional relationship with Rudy Giuliani; Mukasey and son are also justice advisers to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. Mukasey swore in Mayor-elect Giuliani in 1994 and 1998.
[edit] Judicial career
In 1987, Mukasey was nominated as a federal district judge for the Southern District of New York 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 from March 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. In so ruling, Mukasey gave deference to "a federal executive branch policy favoring voluntary resolution of Holocaust-era insurance claims."
[edit] 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.
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."
Since retiring from the bench, Mukasey has made campaign contributions to Giuliani for president and Joe Lieberman for Senate. Mukasey is also listed on the Giuliani campaign's Justice Advisory Committee.
[edit] Extrajudicial opinions on law and terrorism
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 expressed doubt 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.
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."
[edit] Nomination as Attorney General
On September 16, 2007, various publications reported that Mukasey accepted Bush's offer to replace Alberto Gonzales as the Attorney General. 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." If confirmed, Judge Mukasey would be the second Jewish person to become Attorney General. The first was Edward H. Levi.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on September 18 that the administration desires the Mukasey nomination approved by October 8, 2007. She cited past prompt confirmations of attorneys. Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said that Mukasey would commit to an administrative rule to ensure that only the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General, not U.S. Attorneys or other Justice employees, could respond to inquiries from politicians regarding outstanding cases, and that any other employee who discusses cases "with somebody outside, whether from the White House or members of Congress or something else like that, they will be fired"; this concession sought to avoid problems that arose during the controversy over the dismissal of U.S. attorneys under the previous Attorney General's tenure.
[edit] External links
- Jewish Extremist Nominated U.S. Attorney General on David Duke's blog.
- Jewish Extremist Nominated U.S. Attorney General on Western Voices World News
