Michael Wallace
Encyclopedia
Michael Brunson Wallace is an American lawyer
from Jackson, Mississippi
and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
.
. He received his bachelor's degree
cum laude from Harvard University
in 1973. In 1976, he graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law
, where he served on the Virginia Law Review
and was named to the Order of the Coif
. Wallace then clerked for Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Harry G. Walker from 1976 until 1977 and then-Associate Supreme Court
Justice William Rehnquist
from 1977 until 1978. From 1980 to 1981, Wallace worked as a research analyst for the United States House of Representatives
House Republican Research Committee. From 1980 to 1983, he worked as the counsel for the Office of the Republican Whip in the U.S. House under future Mississippi senator Trent Lott
. Wallace was a legislative consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States
from 1984 to 1994. The Conference’s primary responsibility was to examine administrative processes in Congress and federal agencies for the purpose of recommending improvements. From 1984 to 1990, Mr. Wallace served as a board member of the Legal Services Corporation
, a private, non-profit corporation established by Congress to promote the availability of legal services to the indigent. He served as board chairman from 1988 to 1990. From 1983 to 1986, Mr. Wallace was an associate at the Jackson, Mississippi
law firm
of Jones, Mockbee, Bass & Hodge. Since 1986, he has been a partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, also in Jackson. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush considered Mr. Wallace for nomination to the federal bench. His name was submitted to the American Bar Association
for review, and some civil rights organizations expressed their opposition. The nomination never came before Congress.
nominated Mr. Wallace to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
vacated by Judge Henry Anthony Politz
, who had taken senior status
in 1999. From May 2001 until December 2004, federal district court judge
Charles W. Pickering
had been the nominee for the seat, but Senate Democrats and liberal groups like People for the American Way
had been successful in obstructing his confirmation. Frustrated with this obstruction, President Bush recess-appointed
Judge Pickering to the Fifth Circuit in January 2004. Unable to break a Democrat filibuster, Pickering retired at the end of 2004. Wallace was nominated to replace Pickering.
Mr. Wallace was immediately opposed by the Senate Democrats and the same liberal groups that had previously opposed Pickering. They charged that Mr. Wallace had tried to undermine meaningful enforcement of the U.S. civil rights
laws. They said that he had fought unsuccessfully against restoring important, widely supported voting rights protections, continued to maintain that such protections did not exist long after they were enacted, stopped legal services providers from bringing cases under the Voting Rights Act, and opposed efforts in 2006 to enforce the Voting Rights Act.http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=22499
Senate Democrats and liberal groups were especially upset with Mr. Wallace's actions as a member of the Legal Services Corporation
. As the chair of the organization, Wallace had received significant criticism from Democrats and a few moderate Republicans for seeking to undermine the agency. He authorized the use of LSC funds to lobby Congress for cuts in LSC’s budget and to pay lawyers to prepare a memo arguing for LSC’s abolition. Republican Senator Warren Rudman
characterized Wallace's appeal to Congress as "absolutely bad faith."
Although it determined that Wallace “has the highest professional competence” and “possesses the integrity to serve on the bench,” the American Bar Association
's judicial-evaluations committee gave him a "not qualified" rating, finding him lacking on the highly malleable element of “judicial temperament.” Senate Republicans blamed the "not qualified" rating on the liberal biases of the American Bar Association
's leadership and judicial-evaluations committee. They pointed to the fact that the chair of the ABA committee at the time of the evaluation, Stephen Tober, had had a major run-in with Wallace in 1987 when Wallace served on the board of the Legal Services Corporation
. In the course of strikingly intemperate testimony before an LSC committee headed by Wallace, Tober twice accused him of a “hidden agenda.” (The ABA president at the time of the ABA’s evaluation of Wallace, Michael S. Greco
, and another ABA committee member, Marna Tucker, had likewise attacked Wallace over contentious LSC matters.) On the Wallace evaluation, Tober played the customary role that the ABA committee chair plays (and that is set forth in the ABA’s so-called Backgrounder): He assigned Fifth Circuit member Kim Askew — who according to the Republicans had her own biases and conflict of interest concerning Wallace — to conduct the investigation. He reviewed her draft report with her. In light of her proposed “not qualified” rating, he assigned a second person, Thomas Hayward
, to conduct a second evaluation of Wallace. He reviewed Hayward’s draft report with him. He determined that he was satisfied with the “quality and thoroughness” of Askew’s investigation, and made the same determination regarding Hayward’s investigation. He then directed his committee colleagues to read Askew’s report and Hayward’s report in tandem. Without any deliberation among the committee members, Tober then received and tallied the votes of the other committee members. Under the ABA committee’s procedures, the chair votes only in the event of a tie, so Tober did not cast a vote. Tober then reported the committee’s unanimous “not qualified” rating to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans felt that Tober plainly should have recused himself from the Wallace evaluation.
In December 2006, Wallace announced that he was withdrawing his name from consideration for the Fifth Circuit.http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Judicial-Withdrawal.html?hp&ex=1168405200&en=909acae6f726aea8&ei=5094&partner=homepage Only in September 2007, after a delay of six years, was the seat to which Pickering and Wallace had been nominated filled with a Bush nominee. Leslie H. Southwick
, another controversial nominee, was confirmed almost entirely because of the support of California's Democratic senator, Dianne Feinstein
.
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
from Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Louisiana* Middle District of Louisiana...
.
Background
Michael Wallace was born January 1, 1951, in Biloxi, MississippiBiloxi, Mississippi
Biloxi is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, in the United States. The 2010 census recorded the population as 44,054. Along with Gulfport, Biloxi is a county seat of Harrison County....
. He received his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
cum laude from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1973. In 1976, he graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law
University of Virginia School of Law
The University of Virginia School of Law was founded in Charlottesville in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson as one of the original subjects taught at his "academical village," the University of Virginia. The law school maintains an enrollment of approximately 1,100 students in its initial degree program...
, where he served on the Virginia Law Review
Virginia Law Review
The Virginia Law Review is a law review edited and published entirely by students at University of Virginia School of Law. It was founded on March 15, 1913, and permanently organized later that year...
and was named to the Order of the Coif
Order of the Coif
The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. A student at an American law school who earns a Juris Doctor degree and graduates in the top 10 percent of his or her class is eligible for membership if the student's law school has a chapter of the...
. Wallace then clerked for Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Harry G. Walker from 1976 until 1977 and then-Associate Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
Justice William Rehnquist
William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States...
from 1977 until 1978. From 1980 to 1981, Wallace worked as a research analyst for the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
House Republican Research Committee. From 1980 to 1983, he worked as the counsel for the Office of the Republican Whip in the U.S. House under future Mississippi senator Trent Lott
Trent Lott
Chester Trent Lott, Sr. , is a former United States Senator from Mississippi and has served in numerous leadership positions in the House of Representatives and the Senate....
. Wallace was a legislative consultant to the Administrative Conference of the United States
Administrative Conference of the United States
The Administrative Conference of the United States is an independent agency of the United States government established by the Administrative Conference Act of 1964. It is also considered to be a federal advisory committee...
from 1984 to 1994. The Conference’s primary responsibility was to examine administrative processes in Congress and federal agencies for the purpose of recommending improvements. From 1984 to 1990, Mr. Wallace served as a board member of the Legal Services Corporation
Legal Services Corporation
The Legal Services Corporation is a private, non-profit corporation established by the United States Congress. It seeks to ensure equal access to justice under the law for all Americans by providing civil legal assistance to those who otherwise would be unable to afford it...
, a private, non-profit corporation established by Congress to promote the availability of legal services to the indigent. He served as board chairman from 1988 to 1990. From 1983 to 1986, Mr. Wallace was an associate at the Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
law firm
Law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...
of Jones, Mockbee, Bass & Hodge. Since 1986, he has been a partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, also in Jackson. In 1992, President George H.W. Bush considered Mr. Wallace for nomination to the federal bench. His name was submitted to the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
for review, and some civil rights organizations expressed their opposition. The nomination never came before Congress.
Fifth Circuit nomination under Bush
On February 8, 2006, President George W. BushGeorge W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
nominated Mr. Wallace to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Eastern District of Louisiana* Middle District of Louisiana...
vacated by Judge Henry Anthony Politz
Henry Anthony Politz
Henry Anthony Politz was a United States federal judge.Born in Napoleonville, Louisiana, Politz was a U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1955. He received a B.A. from Louisiana State University in 1958 and a J.D. from Louisiana State University Law School in 1959...
, who had taken senior status
Senior status
Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges, and judges in some state court systems. After federal judges have reached a certain combination of age and years of service on the federal courts, they are allowed to assume senior status...
in 1999. From May 2001 until December 2004, federal district court judge
United States district court
The United States district courts are the general trial courts of the United States federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty. There is a United States bankruptcy court associated with each United States...
Charles W. Pickering
Charles W. Pickering
Charles Willis Pickering, Sr. is a retired federal judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.- Background :...
had been the nominee for the seat, but Senate Democrats and liberal groups like People for the American Way
People For the American Way
People For the American Way is a progressive advocacy group in the United States. Under U.S. tax code, People For the American Way is organized as a tax-exempt 501 non-profit organization.-Purpose:...
had been successful in obstructing his confirmation. Frustrated with this obstruction, President Bush recess-appointed
Recess appointment
A recess appointment is the appointment, by the President of the United States, of a senior federal official while the U.S. Senate is in recess. The U.S. Constitution requires that the most senior federal officers must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming office, but while the Senate is in...
Judge Pickering to the Fifth Circuit in January 2004. Unable to break a Democrat filibuster, Pickering retired at the end of 2004. Wallace was nominated to replace Pickering.
Mr. Wallace was immediately opposed by the Senate Democrats and the same liberal groups that had previously opposed Pickering. They charged that Mr. Wallace had tried to undermine meaningful enforcement of the U.S. civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
laws. They said that he had fought unsuccessfully against restoring important, widely supported voting rights protections, continued to maintain that such protections did not exist long after they were enacted, stopped legal services providers from bringing cases under the Voting Rights Act, and opposed efforts in 2006 to enforce the Voting Rights Act.http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=22499
Senate Democrats and liberal groups were especially upset with Mr. Wallace's actions as a member of the Legal Services Corporation
Legal Services Corporation
The Legal Services Corporation is a private, non-profit corporation established by the United States Congress. It seeks to ensure equal access to justice under the law for all Americans by providing civil legal assistance to those who otherwise would be unable to afford it...
. As the chair of the organization, Wallace had received significant criticism from Democrats and a few moderate Republicans for seeking to undermine the agency. He authorized the use of LSC funds to lobby Congress for cuts in LSC’s budget and to pay lawyers to prepare a memo arguing for LSC’s abolition. Republican Senator Warren Rudman
Warren Rudman
Warren Bruce Rudman is an American attorney and Republican politician who served as United States Senator from New Hampshire between 1980 and 1993...
characterized Wallace's appeal to Congress as "absolutely bad faith."
Although it determined that Wallace “has the highest professional competence” and “possesses the integrity to serve on the bench,” the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
's judicial-evaluations committee gave him a "not qualified" rating, finding him lacking on the highly malleable element of “judicial temperament.” Senate Republicans blamed the "not qualified" rating on the liberal biases of the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
's leadership and judicial-evaluations committee. They pointed to the fact that the chair of the ABA committee at the time of the evaluation, Stephen Tober, had had a major run-in with Wallace in 1987 when Wallace served on the board of the Legal Services Corporation
Legal Services Corporation
The Legal Services Corporation is a private, non-profit corporation established by the United States Congress. It seeks to ensure equal access to justice under the law for all Americans by providing civil legal assistance to those who otherwise would be unable to afford it...
. In the course of strikingly intemperate testimony before an LSC committee headed by Wallace, Tober twice accused him of a “hidden agenda.” (The ABA president at the time of the ABA’s evaluation of Wallace, Michael S. Greco
Michael S. Greco
Michael Spencer Greco is a former President of the American Bar Association . He is currently a partner in the Boston office of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP, and a former partner at the now-defunct Hill and Barlow.-ABA Presidency:As President of the American Bar Association,...
, and another ABA committee member, Marna Tucker, had likewise attacked Wallace over contentious LSC matters.) On the Wallace evaluation, Tober played the customary role that the ABA committee chair plays (and that is set forth in the ABA’s so-called Backgrounder): He assigned Fifth Circuit member Kim Askew — who according to the Republicans had her own biases and conflict of interest concerning Wallace — to conduct the investigation. He reviewed her draft report with her. In light of her proposed “not qualified” rating, he assigned a second person, Thomas Hayward
Thomas Hayward
Thomas Hayward may refer to:*Thomas Hayward , English cricketer*Thomas Hayward , British sailor who was present during the mutiny on the Bounty*Thomas Hayward *Thomas B...
, to conduct a second evaluation of Wallace. He reviewed Hayward’s draft report with him. He determined that he was satisfied with the “quality and thoroughness” of Askew’s investigation, and made the same determination regarding Hayward’s investigation. He then directed his committee colleagues to read Askew’s report and Hayward’s report in tandem. Without any deliberation among the committee members, Tober then received and tallied the votes of the other committee members. Under the ABA committee’s procedures, the chair votes only in the event of a tie, so Tober did not cast a vote. Tober then reported the committee’s unanimous “not qualified” rating to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republicans felt that Tober plainly should have recused himself from the Wallace evaluation.
In December 2006, Wallace announced that he was withdrawing his name from consideration for the Fifth Circuit.http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Judicial-Withdrawal.html?hp&ex=1168405200&en=909acae6f726aea8&ei=5094&partner=homepage Only in September 2007, after a delay of six years, was the seat to which Pickering and Wallace had been nominated filled with a Bush nominee. Leslie H. Southwick
Leslie H. Southwick
Leslie H. Southwick is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and a former judge of the Mississippi Court of Appeals...
, another controversial nominee, was confirmed almost entirely because of the support of California's Democratic senator, Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein is the senior U.S. Senator from California. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served in the Senate since 1992. She also served as 38th Mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988....
.
External links
- Department of Justice resume
- Official White House Biography
- "Four Judicial Nominees Ask to Withdraw", New York Times, Jan. 9, 2007
- Help Wanted: Qualified Judges at the New York Times
- Report on Nomination of Michael Wallace at People For the American WayPeople For the American WayPeople For the American Way is a progressive advocacy group in the United States. Under U.S. tax code, People For the American Way is organized as a tax-exempt 501 non-profit organization.-Purpose:...