Michael McConnell, one of the most influential federal appeals court judges in the nation, is stepping down from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. He'll become director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, according to concurrent announcements from the court and from Stanford (not yet online.)
McConnell, 53, has been a law professor at the University of Chicago and the University of Utah, served in the solicitor general's office, and worked at Mayer Brown. A skilled appellate advocate, he has argued 11 cases before the Supreme Court.
He is best known for his scholarly writings -- including as a judge -- on the First Amendment and especially its religion clauses. McConnell is usually categorized as a conservative -- he called Roe v. Wade "an embarrassment", and urges broad government accommodation of religious practices. But he clerked for the liberal Justice William Brennan Jr., criticized Bush v. Gore, and has tangled more than once with Justice Antonin Scalia over First Amendment doctrine. When he was nominated to the 10th Circuit in 2002, he won the support of more than 300 law professors from all parts of the political spectrum.
We profiled McConnell here in 2005 when he was widely viewed as a potential nominee to the Supreme Court if a vacancy occurred during George W. Bush's presidency. He never got the nod.
Tenth Circuit Chief Judge Robert Henry lamented McConnell's departure. “Judge Michael McConnell is a fine friend and distinguished colleague. Our Circuit and the federal judiciary are losing a remarkable jurist. We will miss his scholarship, intellect, concern for fairness and justice, and collegial nature. I am certain his important judicial contributions to our nation’s jurisprudence, made while on this court, will continue to be made, a bit differently perhaps, in his prestigious position at Stanford.”
Stanford Law School dean Larry Kramer commented, “Michael McConnell is one of the nation’s most accomplished scholars. “During the past two decades, he has been the preeminent legal scholar writing about the religion clauses of the United States Constitution, not to mention a leading authority on separation of powers, federalism, originalism, and any number of other subjects in constitutional law. We are thrilled and honored to have him join our faculty.”
Former Stanford dean Kathleen Sullivan founded its constitutional law center and will continue her work with the institute that McConnell will head. In the Stanford release, Sullivan said McConnell's move is "an academic coup of the first order."
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