A. Raymond Randolph

Arthur Raymond Randolph (born November 1, 1943) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Randolph was born in Riverside Township, New Jersey, on November 1, 1943.

He grew up in two communities in New Jersey: Palmyra and the Glendora section of Gloucester Township.

He graduated from Triton Regional High School in 1961, as part of the school's first graduating class.

Randolph earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Drexel University in 1966, majoring in economics and basic engineering.

At Drexel, he was president of the debate society, vice president of the Student Senate, and a member of the varsity wrestling squad.

He then attended the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

He served as managing editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and graduated in 1969 with a Juris Doctor degree, summa cum laude, having been first in his class all three years of law school.

Randolph clerked for 2nd Circuit Judge Henry Friendly from 1969 to 1970, then began a career in law in Washington, D.C., moving between private practice, government, and academia.

He started as an Assistant to the United States Solicitor General for three years, briefing and arguing cases in the Supreme Court of the United States.

From 1971 until his appointment to the court in 1990, Randolph argued 25 times in the United States Supreme Court.

In 1973 he went into private practice at the law firm Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin (now part of Baker Botts), where he represented government officials in the Watergate controversy, including former Attorney General Richard Kleindeinst and then President Richard Nixon after the President left office.

He was also a adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center from 1974 to 1978, teaching civil procedure and injunctions.

Randolph returned to the Department of Justice as Deputy U.S. Solicitor General to Solicitor General Robert H. Bork from 1975 to 1977.

In 1979, Randolph was appointed Special Counsel to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the United States House of Representatives, remaining in this position until 1980.

He held a number of positions while in private practice, including Special Assistant Attorney General for the states of New Mexico (1985–90), Utah (1986–1990) and Montana (1983–1990).

He also served as a member of the Advisory Panel of the Federal Courts Study Committee.

Then in private practice he became a partner at Pepper Hamilton (now Troutman Pepper) until his judicial appointment in 1990.

Randolph was nominated by President George H. W. Bush on May 8, 1990, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by Judge Spottswood William Robinson III.

He was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 13, 1990, and received commission on July 16, 1990.

From 1993 through 1995 Judge Randolph was a member of the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and from 1995 to 1998 he served as the Committee's chairman.

In 2006, Judge Randolph found that a rule by Security and Exchange Commission requiring hedge funds to consider natural persons as clients was arbitrary and capricious.

He was appointed to the Court in 1990 and assumed senior status on November 1, 2008.

He assumed senior status on November 1, 2008.

In June 2017, Randolph partially dissented when the court found that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act did not prevent the survivors of a Holocaust victim from suing to recover art stolen by Nazi plunderers.

Al Odah v. United States was the first appeal before the D.C. Circuit challenging the Bush Administration's policies regarding detention of suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

In Al Odah, Judge Randolph wrote for a unanimous panel that the detainees at Guantanamo Bay did not have rights under the United States Constitution.

That decision was reversed by the Supreme Court in Rasul v. Bush.

The United States Congress subsequently passed the Detainee Treatment Act, which was intended to reverse the effect of the Supreme Court's decision in Rasul.

Judge Randolph also wrote the majority opinion for the D.C. Circuit in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

On July 3, 2019, after District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan received a message regarding a July 12, 2019 event co-sponsored by judiciary branch's research and education agency, he forwarded the email to about 45 judges and their staffs to alert them to an upcoming climate-change seminar.

His note said only, "just FYI." Within an hour, Randolph replied via a "Reply all," response to Sullivan and all those who had been copied on the forwarded email.

He questioned Sullivan's ethics and recommended he get "back into the business of judging, which are (sic) what you are being paid to do. As a former chairman of the federal judiciary's ethics committee, I think you have crossed the line. Should I report you? I don’t know?"

Characterizing Sullivan's first message as having subjected, "...our colleagues to this nonsense," Randolph suggested he had breached judicial decorum: "The jurisdiction assigned to you does not include saving the planet. A little hubris (sic) would be welcomed in many of your latest public displays. The supposedly (sic) science and stuff you are now sponsoring is nothing of the sort."

Sullivan responded to Randolph and all who had been copied: "I sincerely regret that you were offended by my email! I merely forwarded an email announcing a seminar sponsored in conjunction with the support of the Federal Judicial Center. I have no stake in that seminar."

Two other judges defended Sullivan to those copied on the exchange.

One wrote to explain the purpose of the Center's presentation and noting that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. chaired a board which had approved of the event.

The second characterized Randolph's outburst as "accusatory," and "quite disturbing."

Over the years, Judge Randolph accepted all expenses paid fishing trips to Alaska from billionaire Paul Singer and multi-millionaire Robin Arkley II, even though Singer and Arkley had business before the federal courts.

Judge Randolph failed to report these "gifts" and claimed that the court clerk said he did not need to report the trips.