Laurence H. Silberman - Biography

Laurence Hirsch Silberman (born October 12, 1935) is a senior federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was appointed in October 1985 by Ronald Reagan and took senior status on November 1, 2000. He continues to serve on the court. On June 11, 2008, Silberman was named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor granted by the government of the United States.

Biography

Silberman graduated from Dartmouth College in 1957 and Harvard Law School in 1961. He served in the United States Army from 1957 to 1958. His first wife, Rosalie "Ricky" Gaull Silberman, co-foundress of the Independent Women's Forum, died on February 17, 2007. Silberman has since remarried to Patricia Winn Silberman.

Silberman is also a friend of Justice Clarence Thomas and in 1989 encouraged a young and then-reluctant Thomas to accept a federal judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Career

Silberman has worked in the private sector as a partner at the law firms Moore, Silberman & Schulze in Honolulu and Morrison & Foerster and Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C. He has also served as Executive Vice President of Crocker National Bank in San Francisco. His government service includes stints as an attorney in the NLRB's appellate section, as Solicitor of the Department of Labor from 1969 to 1970, and as Undersecretary of Labor from 1970 to 1973. As Deputy Attorney General of the United States from 1974 to 1975, Silberman was tasked with reviewing J. Edgar Hoover's secret files, which he has described as "the single worst experience of my long governmental service." Silberman also served briefly as Acting Attorney General during the Watergate crisis, an experience he has described as awkward: "We were simultaneously carrying out President Nixon's agenda and supporting those who were vigorously prosecuting him."

President Gerald Ford appointed Silberman as Ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1975 to 1977. At that same time, he also served as the Presidential Special Envoy for International Labor Organization Affairs. From 1981 to 1985, he served as a member of the General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament and the Defense Policy Board. He was a member of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review at the time of its first ever session in 2002.

Silberman was on the short list of potential nominees to the Supreme Court on three separate occasions in 1987, 1990, and 1991.

On February 6, 2004, Silberman was appointed co-chairman of the Iraq Intelligence Commission, an independent blue-ribbon panel created to investigate U.S. intelligence surrounding the United States' 2003 invasion of Iraq and Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. In the wake of the resignation of Alberto Gonzales as United States Attorney General in 2007, Silberman was mentioned as a possible successor.

Legal Opinions

As a judge, Silberman has authored a number of noteworthy opinions. In Parker v. District of Columbia, Silberman held that the District of Columbia’s flat ban on the registration and carrying of firearms violated the Second Amendment right “to keep and bear arms.” The case was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller.

In In re Sealed Case, Silberman held that the procedures for appointing independent counsels violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution and the separation of powers, because they interfered with the President’s ability to ensure that the laws are “faithfully executed.” This decision was subsequently reversed by the Supreme Court in Morrison v. Olson, over a vigorous dissent by Justice Antonin Scalia. After the Clinton impeachment episode, many changed their minds on this issue and praised Judge Silberman and Justice Scalia’s position.

In a later per curiam decision captioned In re Sealed Case No. 02-001, the court upheld a provision of the Patriot Act that made it easier for law enforcement officers and intelligence officers to share information with each other. This was an important decision involving interpretation of the Patriot Act, the use of foreign intelligence, and the role of the FISA Court. Silberman subsequently disclosed that he had in fact written the opinion.

Criticism

Silberman has on occasion attracted the attention of conspiracy theorists. Silberman responded as follows:

In 2006, Silberman responded at length on Michael Barone's blog to allegations made by the journalist David Brock in the book Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative.

Academic career

He was an Adjunct Professor of Administrative Law at Georgetown University Law Center from 1987 to 1994 and from 1997 to 1999, at NYU from 1995 to 1996, and at Harvard in 1998. He currently holds the position of Distinguished Visitor from the Judiciary at Georgetown University Law Center and teaches both administrative law and labor law. Silberman received the Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award for the 2002-2003 academic year. He has also received a Lifetime Service Award (2006) and a Distinguished Service Award (2007) from the Federalist Society chapters of Georgetown and Harvard, respectively.

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