Scott Matheson Jr.

Scott Milne Matheson Jr. (born Scott Milne Matheson III; July 15, 1953) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Matheson earned an Bachelors of Arts degree with distinction from Stanford University in 1975, where he won the Anna Laura Myers Prize for an outstanding undergraduate economics thesis.

His father, Scott M. Matheson, served as Governor of Utah from 1977 to 1985, his mother, Norma Matheson, served as First Lady of Utah, and his brother, Jim Matheson, served as a United States Representative from Utah from 2001 to 2015.

He then went to Magdalen College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, receiving a Master of Arts degree in modern history in 1977.

He then attended the Yale Law School, where he was a notes editor for the Yale Law Journal and graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1980.

After graduating from law school, Matheson first worked as his father's campaign manager for the 1980 Utah gubernatorial election.

In 1981, he entered private practice as an associate attorney at the Washington, D.C. litigation firm Williams & Connolly.

In 1985, Matheson joined the faculty of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.

There, Matheson primarily taught constitutional law, criminal law, and civil procedure.

Matheson was also extensively involved in law administration and law reform efforts, serving as a vice-chair of the Utah Constitutional Revision Committee, a chair of the Utah Supreme Court Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence, and a member of the Utah State Bar Commission.

Matheson was also involved in efforts to expand legal aid in Utah, establishing a Pro Bono Initiative at the S.J. Quinney College of Law and serving on the Board of Trustees of the Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake.

During his time as a law professor, Matheson contributed to various other institutions during leaves of absence.

From 1988 to 1989, Matheson served as the Deputy County Attorney for Salt Lake County.

From 1989 to 1990, Matheson was a visiting professor in the Frank Stanton Chair on the First Amendment at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Matheson was the United States Attorney for the District of Utah from 1993 to 1997.

Matheson was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah.

From 1993 to 1997, Matheson was the United States Attorney for the District of Utah.

After working in private practice for several years, Matheson became a law professor at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, where he served as dean from 1998 to 2006.

Matheson served as dean of the S.J. Quinney School of Law from 1998 to 2006.

After concluding his deanship, Matheson spent his one-year sabbatical as a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC.

Matheson was also the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of Utah in 2004, losing to Republican Jon Huntsman Jr.. with 41.4% of the vote.

From 2007 to 2008, Matheson chaired the Utah Mine Safety Commission, which was formed in response to the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster and charged with improving mine safety and disaster response in the state.

Matheson is the author of the book Presidential Constitutionalism in Perilous Times (2009) and numerous law review articles.

He has served on that court since 2010.

A native of Salt Lake City, Matheson graduated from Stanford University, attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and received his Juris Doctor degree from the Yale Law School.

On March 3, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Matheson to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to replace Michael W. McConnell, who resigned in August 2009 to return to academia.

Matheson's nomination was unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

However, sources such as the Fox News Channel and conservative magazine The Weekly Standard alleged that Obama hoped to influence Matheson's brother, Representative Jim Matheson, to vote for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

According to The Salt Lake Tribune, "Rep. Jim Matheson called the claim simply absurd, as did the White House, Senator Orrin Hatch and pretty much everyone who knows the Mathesons."

Hatch, an establishment conservative Republican from Utah, supported Matheson and helped shepherd the nomination through the Senate.

On December 22, 2010, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination.

Matheson received his judicial commission on December 27, 2010.

Awad v. Ziriax, 670 F.3d 1111 (10th Cir. 2012): The court (per Judge Matheson, joined by Judges O’Brien and McKay) upheld a district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction to prevent the Oklahoma State Election Board from certifying a proposed amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution that would prevent Oklahoma state courts from using or considering Sharia law.

Bandimere v. SEC, 844 F.3d 1168 (10th Cir. 2016): The court (per Judge Matheson, joined by Judge Briscoe, with Judge McKay dissenting) held that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s administrative-law judges were “inferior officers” subject to the Appointments Clause.

The court’s decision opened a circuit split with the D.C. Circuit.

''Raymond J. Lucia Cos.

v. SEC, 832 F.3d 277 (D.C. Cir. 2016), rehearing denied, 868 F.3d 1021, rev’d'', 138 S. Ct. 2044 (2018).

The Supreme Court granted certiorari on Lucia and agreed with the Tenth Circuit’s holding that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s administrative-law judges were “inferior officers.”

Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. v. Sebelius, 723 F.3d 1114 (10th Cir. 2013) (en banc), aff’d, 134 S. Ct. 2751 (2014): Judge Matheson filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part from the en banc majority’s decision that reversed the district court’s denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction in a challenge to a federal regulation that required employers to provide health insurance for employees that covered certain contraceptives.

Little Sisters of the Poor v. Burwell, 794 F.3d 1151 (10th Cir. 2015), vacated and remanded, 136 S. Ct. 1557: A group of nonprofit religious employers challenged regulations by the Department of Health and Human Services that provided accommodations for religious objectors to a regulatory mandate to provide employees with health insurance coverage for contraceptives.