Rod J. Rosenstein
Encyclopedia
Rod J. Rosenstein is the United States Attorney
for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
.
of the University of Pennsylvania
, with a B.S. in Economics
, summa cum laude in 1986. He earned his J.D. degree cum laude in 1989 from Harvard Law School
, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review
. He then served as a law clerk
to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
.
After his clerkship, Mr. Rosenstein joined the U.S. Department of Justice
through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. From 1990 to 1993, he prosecuted public corruption cases as a trial attorney with the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division, then led by Assistant Attorney General Robert S. Mueller, III
.
During the Clinton Administration
, Mr. Rosenstein served as Counsel to Deputy Attorney General Philip B. Heymann
(1993–1994) and Special Assistant to Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Jo Ann Harris
(1994–1995). As an Associate Independent Counsel from 1995 to 1997, he was co-counsel in the trial of three defendants who were convicted of fraud, and he supervised the investigation that found no basis for criminal prosecution of White House officials who had obtained FBI background reports.
United States Attorney Lynne A. Battaglia
hired Mr. Rosenstein as an Assistant U.S. Attorney
in 1997. He litigated a wide range of cases, coordinated the credit card fraud and international assistance programs and supervised the law student intern program. He also briefed and argued cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
.
From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Rosenstein served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice
. He coordinated the tax enforcement activities of the Tax Division, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the IRS, and he supervised 90 attorneys and 30 support employees. He also oversaw civil litigation and served as the acting head of the Tax Division when Assistant Attorney General Eileen J. O'Connor was unavailable, and he personally briefed and argued civil appeals in several federal appellate courts.
President George W. Bush
nominated Mr. Rosenstein to serve as United States Attorney
for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
on May 23, 2005. He took office on July 12, 2005, after the United States Senate
unanimously confirmed his nomination. As United States Attorney, he oversees federal civil and criminal litigation and develops and implements federal law enforcement strategies in Maryland. He also continues personally to litigate cases in the U.S. District Court
and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
.
The Attorney General
appointed Mr. Rosenstein to serve on the Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys, which evaluates and recommends policies for the Department of Justice. He is vice-chair of the Violent and Organized Crime Subcommittee and a member of the Subcommittees on White Collar Crime, Sentencing Issues and Cyber/Intellectual Property Crime. He also serves on the Attorney General’s Anti-Gang Coordination Committee.
Mr. Rosenstein is on the Board of Directors of the Maryland State’s Attorneys’ Association and of the Maryland chapter of the Federal Bar Association
. He is the Core City U.S. Attorney for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and serves on the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Executive Board. He also is a member of the Baltimore City Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
As an adjunct professor, Mr. Rosenstein teaches classes on federal criminal prosecution at the University of Maryland School of Law
and trial advocacy at the University of Baltimore School of Law
. He also serves on the faculty of a trial advocacy seminar at Georgetown University Law Center
. He often speaks about law enforcement issues and government service at public events and legal seminars.
Mr. Rosenstein is an active member of the Maryland and District of Columbia bars and of numerous federal court bars. He belongs to the Maryland, Federal and American Bar Association
s. He is a barrister of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court
and a member of the Lawyers’ Round Table of Baltimore.
nominated Mr. Rosenstein to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
to a seat vacated by Francis Dominic Murnaghan, Jr., who had died on August 31, 2000.
On October 12, 2000, President Bill Clinton
had nominated African-American federal district court judge
Andre M. Davis
to replace Murnaghan. The nomination was a part of Clinton's effort to integrate the Fourth Circuit, which up to that point had never had an African-American Circuit Court of Appeals judge. However, since Davis was nominated after July 1, 2000, the unofficial start date of the Thurmond Rule
during a presidential election year, no hearings were scheduled on his nomination, and the nomination was returned to Clinton at the end of his term.
Bush unsuccessfully attempted to fill the seat three times. During the spring of 2001, Bush intended to nominate Washington, D.C. lawyer Peter Keisler
, a resident of Bethesda, Maryland
, to the Maryland seat on the Fourth Circuit, but was blocked from doing so by Democratic senators Paul Sarbanes
and Barbara Mikulski
on the grounds that he wasn't sufficiently a member of the Maryland legal community. Keisler later became a nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
in 2006, which was also blocked by the Senate, and Acting United States Attorney General
of the United States after the resignation of Alberto Gonzales
in 2007.
In 2004, in an attempt to bypass the necessary approval of Democrats Sarbanes and Mikulski, Bush sought to transfer the open circuit seat to Virginia, which had two Republican senators at the time, John Warner
and George Allen
. He nominated Virginia resident Claude Allen
, an African American member of the Bush administration, to succeed Murnaghan on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Allen's nomination was opposed by the People for the American Way
, the NAACP
, and the National Organization for Women
. Because of the opposition of Sarbanes and Mikulski, Allen's nomination was stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee and lapsed on December 8, 2005. Bush chose not to renominate Allen.
Rosenstein, a state resident, was afterward nominated to fill the Maryland seat. Mikulski and new Democratic Maryland senator, Benjamin Cardin, blocked Rosenstein's confirmation, stating that he did not have strong enough Maryland legal ties, and due to this Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy
did not schedule a hearing on Rosenstein during the 110th Congress and the nomination lapsed. Davis later was renominated to the same seat and confirmed by the Senate in 2009.
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
United States District Court for the District of Maryland
The United States District Court for the District of Maryland is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Maryland....
and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...
.
Background
Mr. Rosenstein graduated from the Wharton SchoolWharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton was the world’s first collegiate business school and the first business school in the United States...
of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, with a B.S. in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, summa cum laude in 1986. He earned his J.D. degree cum laude in 1989 from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review
Harvard Law Review
The Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School.-Overview:According to the 2008 Journal Citation Reports, the Review is the most cited law review and has the second-highest impact factor in the category "law" after the...
. He then served as a law clerk
Law clerk
A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Law clerks are not court clerks or courtroom deputies, who are administrative staff for the court. Most law clerks are recent law school graduates who...
to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg
Douglas H. Ginsburg
Douglas Howard Ginsburg is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was appointed to this court in October 1986 by President Ronald Reagan. He served as its Chief Judge from July 16, 2001 until February 10, 2008...
of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...
.
After his clerkship, Mr. Rosenstein joined the U.S. Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
through the Attorney General’s Honors Program. From 1990 to 1993, he prosecuted public corruption cases as a trial attorney with the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division, then led by Assistant Attorney General Robert S. Mueller, III
Robert Mueller
Robert Swan Mueller III is the 6th and current Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation .-Early life:...
.
During the Clinton Administration
Presidency of Bill Clinton
The United States Presidency of Bill Clinton, also known as the Clinton Administration, was the executive branch of the federal government of the United States from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second full term...
, Mr. Rosenstein served as Counsel to Deputy Attorney General Philip B. Heymann
Philip B. Heymann
Philip B. Heymann is a former Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration and currently a law professor at Harvard Law School. He has been known as an active critic of the George W...
(1993–1994) and Special Assistant to Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Jo Ann Harris
Jo Ann Harris
Jo Ann Harris is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, she is known for her role in the film The Beguiled as the sultry 17-year-old Carol who seduces Clint Eastwood's character. Harris had a small singing role in Newsies as "Patrick's mother", the woman searching for her son in the first part...
(1994–1995). As an Associate Independent Counsel from 1995 to 1997, he was co-counsel in the trial of three defendants who were convicted of fraud, and he supervised the investigation that found no basis for criminal prosecution of White House officials who had obtained FBI background reports.
United States Attorney Lynne A. Battaglia
Lynne A. Battaglia
Lynne Ann Battaglia is an American lawyer and jurist from Howard County, Maryland. Battaglia was born in Silver Creek, New York. She earned a J.D. degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1974 and was admitted to the bar that same year...
hired Mr. Rosenstein as an Assistant U.S. Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
in 1997. He litigated a wide range of cases, coordinated the credit card fraud and international assistance programs and supervised the law student intern program. He also briefed and argued cases in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...
.
From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Rosenstein served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
. He coordinated the tax enforcement activities of the Tax Division, the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the IRS, and he supervised 90 attorneys and 30 support employees. He also oversaw civil litigation and served as the acting head of the Tax Division when Assistant Attorney General Eileen J. O'Connor was unavailable, and he personally briefed and argued civil appeals in several federal appellate courts.
President George W. Bush
George 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. Rosenstein to serve as United States Attorney
United States Attorney
United States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
for the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
United States District Court for the District of Maryland
The United States District Court for the District of Maryland is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Maryland....
on May 23, 2005. He took office on July 12, 2005, after the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
unanimously confirmed his nomination. As United States Attorney, he oversees federal civil and criminal litigation and develops and implements federal law enforcement strategies in Maryland. He also continues personally to litigate cases in the U.S. District Court
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...
and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...
.
The Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
appointed Mr. Rosenstein to serve on the Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys, which evaluates and recommends policies for the Department of Justice. He is vice-chair of the Violent and Organized Crime Subcommittee and a member of the Subcommittees on White Collar Crime, Sentencing Issues and Cyber/Intellectual Property Crime. He also serves on the Attorney General’s Anti-Gang Coordination Committee.
Mr. Rosenstein is on the Board of Directors of the Maryland State’s Attorneys’ Association and of the Maryland chapter of the Federal Bar Association
Federal Bar Association
The Federal Bar Association is the primary voluntary professional organization for private and government lawyers and judges practicing and sitting in federal courts in the United States.-Background:...
. He is the Core City U.S. Attorney for the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and serves on the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Executive Board. He also is a member of the Baltimore City Criminal Justice Coordinating Council.
As an adjunct professor, Mr. Rosenstein teaches classes on federal criminal prosecution at the University of Maryland School of Law
University of Maryland School of Law
The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law is the second-oldest law school in the United States by date of establishment and third-oldest by date of first classes. The school is located on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore in Downtown Baltimore's West Side...
and trial advocacy at the University of Baltimore School of Law
University of Baltimore School of Law
University of Baltimore School of Law, or UB Law, is one of the three colleges that make up the University of Baltimore, which is part of the University System of Maryland. UB Law is one of only two law schools in the state of Maryland, the other law school being the University of Maryland School...
. He also serves on the faculty of a trial advocacy seminar at Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center
Georgetown University Law Center is the law school of Georgetown University, located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 1870, the Law Center offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees in law...
. He often speaks about law enforcement issues and government service at public events and legal seminars.
Mr. Rosenstein is an active member of the Maryland and District of Columbia bars and of numerous federal court bars. He belongs to the Maryland, Federal and 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. He is a barrister of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court
American Inns of Court Foundation
American Inns of Court are designed to improve the skills, professionalism and ethics of the bench and bar. An American Inn of Court is an amalgam of judges, lawyers, and in some cases, law professors and law students...
and a member of the Lawyers’ Round Table of Baltimore.
Fourth Circuit nomination under Bush
On November 15, 2007, 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. Rosenstein to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:*District of Maryland*Eastern District of North Carolina...
to a seat vacated by Francis Dominic Murnaghan, Jr., who had died on August 31, 2000.
On October 12, 2000, President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
had nominated African-American 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...
Andre M. Davis
Andre M. Davis
Andre Maurice Davis is a jurist on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He previously was a federal district judge, and was nominated first for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit by President Bill Clinton in 2000...
to replace Murnaghan. The nomination was a part of Clinton's effort to integrate the Fourth Circuit, which up to that point had never had an African-American Circuit Court of Appeals judge. However, since Davis was nominated after July 1, 2000, the unofficial start date of the Thurmond Rule
Thurmond Rule
The Thurmond Rule is an informal and somewhat amorphous rule of thumb in the United States Senate. While it originated with former Senator Strom Thurmond's opposition to President Lyndon Johnson's nomination of Justice Abe Fortas to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in June of 1968, its...
during a presidential election year, no hearings were scheduled on his nomination, and the nomination was returned to Clinton at the end of his term.
Bush unsuccessfully attempted to fill the seat three times. During the spring of 2001, Bush intended to nominate Washington, D.C. lawyer Peter Keisler
Peter Keisler
Peter D. Keisler is an American lawyer whose 2006 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit became embroiled in partisan controversy...
, a resident of Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
, to the Maryland seat on the Fourth Circuit, but was blocked from doing so by Democratic senators Paul Sarbanes
Paul Sarbanes
Paul Spyros Sarbanes , a Democrat, is a former United States Senator who represented the state of Maryland. Sarbanes was the longest-serving senator in Maryland history, having served from 1977 until 2007. He did not seek re-election in 2006, when he was succeeded by fellow Democrat Ben Cardin...
and Barbara Mikulski
Barbara Mikulski
Barbara Ann Mikulski is the senior United States Senator from Maryland and a member of the Democratic Party. Mikulski, a former U.S. Representative, is the longest-serving female senator in U.S...
on the grounds that he wasn't sufficiently a member of the Maryland legal community. Keisler later became a nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...
in 2006, which was also blocked by the Senate, and Acting United States Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
of the United States after the resignation of Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...
in 2007.
In 2004, in an attempt to bypass the necessary approval of Democrats Sarbanes and Mikulski, Bush sought to transfer the open circuit seat to Virginia, which had two Republican senators at the time, John Warner
John Warner
John William Warner, KBE is an American Republican politician who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1972 to 1974 and as a five-term United States Senator from Virginia from January 2, 1979, to January 3, 2009...
and George Allen
George Allen (U.S. politician)
George Felix Allen is a former United States Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the son of former NFL head coach George Allen. Allen served Virginia in the state legislature, as the 67th Governor, and in both bodies of the U.S. Congress, winning election to the Senate in 2000...
. He nominated Virginia resident Claude Allen
Claude Allen
Claude Alexander Allen was the Assistant to the President of the United States for Domestic Policy in George W. Bush's White House and a withdrawn Bush judicial nominee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The African-American Republican was appointed to his White House...
, an African American member of the Bush administration, to succeed Murnaghan on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Allen's nomination was opposed by the 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:...
, the NAACP
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
, and the National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
. Because of the opposition of Sarbanes and Mikulski, Allen's nomination was stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee and lapsed on December 8, 2005. Bush chose not to renominate Allen.
Rosenstein, a state resident, was afterward nominated to fill the Maryland seat. Mikulski and new Democratic Maryland senator, Benjamin Cardin, blocked Rosenstein's confirmation, stating that he did not have strong enough Maryland legal ties, and due to this Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy
Patrick Leahy
Patrick Joseph Leahy is the senior United States Senator from Vermont and member of the Democratic Party. He is the first and only elected Democratic United States Senator in Vermont's history. He is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy is the second most senior U.S. Senator,...
did not schedule a hearing on Rosenstein during the 110th Congress and the nomination lapsed. Davis later was renominated to the same seat and confirmed by the Senate in 2009.
Sources
See also
- Bill Clinton judicial appointment controversies
- George W. Bush judicial appointment controversiesGeorge W. Bush judicial appointment controversiesDuring President George W. Bush's two term tenure in office, he nominated thirty-nine people for twenty-seven different federal appellate judgeships that were blocked by the Senate Democrats either directly in the Senate Judiciary Committee or on the full Senate floor using a filibuster....