James Harvie Wilkinson 3

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American judge (born 1944)

James Harvie Wilkinson III (born September 29, 1944) is an American attorney and jurist who has served as a United States circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit since 1984. He was appointed to the Fourth Circuit by President Ronald Reagan and he served as chief judge of the circuit from 1996 to 2003.

Early and family life

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Wilkinson was born in New York City , to Alice Culbreth Wilkinson and J. Harvie Wilkinson Jr. He was raised in Richmond , Virginia , where he attended St. Christopher's School during the state's Massive Resistance crisis concerning desegregation of the public schools. His father (CEO of State Planters Bank, later part of Crestar Bank ) joined to support Governor J. Lindsay Almond with Norfolk and Western Railroad CEO Stuart Saunders and Richmond School Board President (and later Supreme Court Justice) Lewis F. Powell and others. Almond had broken with the Byrd Organization and adhered to the decisions of the Virginia Supreme Court and a three judge federal panel on January 19, 1959 that declared as unconstitutional certain new laws designed to maintain segregation.

Wilkinson attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, then Yale University , where he was a member of St. Anthony Hall , chairman of the Conservative Party of the Yale Political Union , and later the Political Union's president. Following graduation with honors from Yale with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967, he published his first book, Harry Byrd and The Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1945–1966 (1968)

Wilkinson enlisted in the United States Army in 1968 and served until 1969. Upon leaving the army, Wilkinson began law school at the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville. In 1970, after completing only one year, Wilkinson took a leave of absence to run (at age 25) for a Virginia seat in the United States House of Representatives . He ran as a Republican against 3-term incumbent Democrat David E. Satterfield III and later he joked about losing by a significant margin, noting that Satterfield had a billboard urging voters to send Wilkinson back to law school.

Wilkinson then resumed his legal studies and was awarded a Juris Doctor in 1972 and soon passed the Virginia bar exam.

Wilkinson and his wife, Lossie, have two children. Their daughter Porter Wilkinson also clerked for the United States Supreme Court , serving in the chambers of Chief Justice John Roberts in 2007–2008. She is married to prominent appellate attorney Jeff Wall .

Early legal, teaching, and writing career

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After graduation from law school, Wilkinson served as a law clerk to newly confirmed U.S. Supreme Court justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. , a longtime family friend, from 1972 to 1973. After his clerkship, Wilkinson declined joining a large law firm. Instead, he returned to Charlottesville and became a professor of law at the University of Virginia, where he taught as an associate professor for five years. Wilkinson also wrote and published his second book, about his clerkship with Justice Powell: Serving Justice: A Supreme Court Clerk's View (1974).

Wilkinson spent three years (1978–1981) working for Norfolk's _The Virginian-Pilot _, including as editorial page editor. He later credited this with broadening his practical experience of both government at many levels, and with people in all walks of life, as well as helping his time management skills. In 1979, Wilkinson published his third book, From Brown to Bakke. In 1982, Wilkinson resumed his legal career, joining the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, eventually becoming deputy assistant attorney general. He returned to teaching at the University of Virginia School of Law in 1983.

Federal judicial service

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On November 10, 1983, as Wilkinson briefly returned to teach at the University of Virginia School of Law as a full professor, President Ronald Reagan nominated him to the Fourth Circuit seat vacated by Judge John D. Butzner Jr. , who had recently retired. Despite some controversy and after hearings on November 16, 1983, and February 22, 1984, the United States Senate confirmed Wilkinson on August 9, 1984, by a 58–39 vote. He received his commission on August 13, 1984.

Wilkinson served as the chief judge of the Fourth Circuit from 1996 to 2003, during which time he wrote and published his fourth book, One Nation Indivisible: How Ethnic Separatism Threatens America (1997). In 2003, Judge Wilkinson wrote the majority opinion upholding the right of the United States government to detain Yaser Esam Hamdi indefinitely without access to counsel or a court. Hamdi was a U.S. citizen captured during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan , and the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately overturned that decision.

As early as August 2000, Wilkinson was viewed as a potential Supreme Court nominee should George W. Bush win [the 2000 presidential election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/200

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