David B. Sentelle

David Sentelle
Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office February 11, 2008
Preceded by	Douglas Ginsburg
Judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office October 19, 1987
Nominated by	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Antonin Scalia
Judge of the District Court for the Western District of North Carolina
In office October 17, 1985 – October 19, 1987
Nominated by	Ronald Reagan
Preceded by	Woodrow Jones
Succeeded by	Richard Voorhees
Personal details
Born	February 12, 1943 (1943-02-12) (age 68) Canton, North Carolina, U.S.
Alma mater	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Judge David Bryan Sentelle (born February 12, 1943) is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Early life and education

Sentelle was born in Canton, North Carolina, the son of a mill worker. He attended college and law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1965 and his law degree in 1968.

Professional career

Following law school he practiced law with the firm of Ussell & Dumont until becoming an assistant U.S. Attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina in January 1970. From 1974 to 1977, he served as a North Carolina State District Judge. He then practiced law privately from 1977 until 1985 with the law firm of Tucker, Hicks, Sentelle, Moon & Hodge. In 1985 he was appointed to the U.S. District Court, Western District of North Carolina in Asheville by President Ronald Reagan, where he served until his appointment to the D.C. Circuit.

Judge Sentelle taught as an adjunct professor at the law schools of the University of North Carolina; Florida State; the Department of Criminal Justice; the University of North Carolina at Charlotte; and George Mason University School of Law. He presents regularly at educational programs for lawyers and judges on national security law.

Federal judicial service

On February 2, 1987, Reagan nominated Sentelle to a position on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to replace Antonin Scalia. Sentelle was confirmed by the United States Senate in an 87-0 vote on September 9, 1987. Sentelle's judicial clerks are known as Sentelle-tubbies.^[1]

On the D.C. Circuit, Sentelle voted to overturn the convictions of Oliver North and John Poindexter, along with Judge Laurence Silberman. He served on the Special Division of the Court which appointed Kenneth Starr under the renewed Independent Counsel statute, replacing Robert B. Fiske, who had been appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno special prosecutor to investigate the allegations against President Bill Clinton with respect to the Whitewater affair.

In 2007, in Boumediene v. Bush, 375 U.S. App. D.C. 48, Judge Sentelle concurred with Judge Arthur Raymond Randolph, relying on Johnson v. Eisentrager, to uphold the Military Commissions Act of 2006's suspension of habeas corpus for enemy combatants as constitutional. Judge Judith Ann Wilson Rogers dissented.

Hufaiza Parhat v. Gates

On Monday June 23, 2008 it was announced that a three judge panel of the D.C. Circuit, made up of David B. Sentelle, Merrick B. Garland and Thomas B. Griffith, overturned the determination of Hufaiza Parhat's Combatant Status Review Tribunal on Friday June 20, 2008.^[2] Parhat's was the first case to be ruled on since the Supreme Court's ruling in Boumediene v. Bush. However, the ruling was made under a section of the Detainee Treatment Act. The court held that even under the government's own interpretation of the statute, it has failed to offer sufficiently reliable evidence for its determination that Parhat's is an enemy combatant.

Publications

• Sentelle, David B. (2002). Judge Dave and the Rainbow People. Green Bag Press, Washington D.C. ISBN 0-9677568-3-9

References

1. ^ http://underneaththeirrobes.blogs.com/main/2004/10/the_young_turks.html
2. ^ William Glaberson (2008-06-24). "Court Voids Finding on Guantánamo Detainee". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/washington/24combatant.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-06-24. 

Legal offices
Preceded by Woodrow Jones	Judge of the District Court for the Western District of North Carolina 1985–1987	Succeeded by Richard Voorhees
Preceded by Antonin Scalia	Judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 1987–present	Incumbent
Preceded by Douglas Ginsburg	Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 2008–present

Persondata
Name	Sentelle, David B.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 12, 1943
Place of birth	Canton, North Carolina, U.S.
Date of death
Place of death