Thomas Beall Griffith

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American retired federal judge (born 1954)

Not to be confused with Thomas D. Griffith .

Thomas Beall Griffith (born July 5, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as a U.S. circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2005 until his retirement in 2020. Currently, he is a lecturer on law at Harvard Law School , a fellow at the Wheatley Institute at Brigham Young University (BYU), and special counsel in the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth . He is also a member of the Federalist Society .

Before being appointed to the D.C. Circuit, Griffith was BYU's general counsel (2000-2005); Senate Legal Counsel, the non-partisan chief legal officer of the United States Senate (1995-1999); and a partner at Wiley Rein . He is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI) and, having been long active in rule-of-law programs in former communist nations, Griffith is also a member of the international advisory board of the CEELI Institute in Prague. He formerly served as a member of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States (2021).

Early life and education

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Griffith was born on July 5, 1954, in Yokohama , Japan , while his father was stationed there with the U.S. Army . He attended high school at Langley High School in McLean , Virginia . During his junior year of high school, Griffith joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He graduated in 1972 as student body president.

After high school, Griffith attended BYU, taking a two-year leave of absence to serve as an LDS Church missionary in South Africa . He graduated in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts , _summa cum laude _, in humanities with an emphasis in comparative literature . In 1982, Griffith entered the University of Virginia School of Law , where he became an editor of the _Virginia Law Review _. He graduated in 1985 with a Juris Doctor .

Career

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He worked in private legal practice in Charlotte, North Carolina , from 1985 to 1989. From 1989 to 1995, Griffith was a litigation partner at Wiley Rein in Washington, D.C. Griffith left private practice in 1995 to serve as Senate Legal Counsel, the chief legal officer of the U.S. Senate. In that position, he gave nonpartisan legal advice to both parties during President Bill Clinton 's impeachment trial . After briefly returning to private practice from 1999 to 2000, Griffith became General Counsel of BYU.

Federal judicial service

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President George W. Bush first nominated Griffith to the D.C. Circuit on May 10, 2004, to fill a seat vacated by retired Judge Patricia M. Wald . His nomination replaced that of Miguel Estrada , who withdrew his nomination after Democrats filibustered him for over two years.

Controversy arose over Griffith's nomination because his District of Columbia bar membership had lapsed in 1998 for failure to pay dues. Griffith was reportedly unaware of the problem at the time and as soon as he learned of it in 2001 paid the dues and was reinstated. After the _Washington Post _ ran a story about the issue in June 2004, a number of prominent Democrats wrote letters supporting Griffith. Abner Mikva , former Democratic congressman and former Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit, wrote that he had known Griffith in and out of government and had "never heard a whisper against his integrity or responsibility". Seth Waxman , who had served as Solicitor General under Clinton, wrote that "for my own part I would stake most everything on [Griffith's] word alone." David E. Kendall and Lanny Breuer , two of Clinton's lawyers during the impeachment trial, also wrote letters supporting Griffith.

Some Democrats also objected that Griffith had practiced law for four years as BYU's general counsel without obtaining a Utah law license. His defenders pointed out that it had been the longstanding position of the Utah Bar Association—as explained in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee by five former Utah Bar presidents—that in-house counsel in Utah do not need to be licensed in the state as long as they associate closely with Utah bar members when giving legal advice. Griffith said he carefully followed this practice during his time at BYU.

The Senate failed to act on Griffith's nomination in 2004, and it lapsed. Bush resubmitted the nomination for the same seat on February 14, 2005. On June 14, 2005, the Senate confirmed Griffith by a 73–24 vote. Twenty Democrats joined fifty-three Republicans in voting for Griffith's confirmation. (Two Republicans and one Independent did not vote.) Democrats voting

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