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Peter D. Keisler
Nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia Circuit
- Peter Keisler is a well-respected attorney and former senior official in the Department of Justice who possesses extensive trial and appellate litigation experience in a broad range of issues.
- Mr. Keisler is nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often considered the country's second highest court. In recent times, the court has taken the lead in many important terrorism-related cases. The Senate should grant Mr. Keisler a fair up-or-down vote and promptly confirm him to the federal bench.
- President Bush first nominated Peter Keisler to the D.C. Circuit on June 29, 2006. Of the pending circuit court nominees, Peter Keisler has been among those waiting the longest for a vote.
- The Washington Post has called him a “highly qualified nominee" who “warrants confirmation." The Washington Post recently re-affirmed its support for Mr. Keisler, describing him as someone who “earns plaudits from the right and left for his stellar intellect and his judicial demeanor." According to the Post, “It is a travesty that he has yet to get a vote from the Senate Judiciary Committee."
- The Los Angeles Times has stated that Mr. Keisler “deserves a vote."
- The ABA greeted Mr. Keisler's nomination with its highest rating — “Well Qualified."
- Mr. Keisler is being nominated to replace Chief Justice John G. Roberts on the D.C. Circuit. Peter Keisler shares many fine attributes with Chief Justice Roberts and would be an outstanding nominee to fill his vacancy.
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Like Chief Justice Roberts, Peter Keisler is a man of impeccable credentials and integrity.
- Like Chief Justice Roberts, Peter Keisler has a distinguished record as a practicing attorney in the public and private sectors.
- Like Chief Justice Roberts, Peter Keisler possesses the temperament, demeanor, and work ethic to be an excellent judge.
- Chief Justice Roberts was confirmed by the Senate by a wide margin. Republicans and Democrats should come together again to confirm Peter Keisler.
- Mr. Keisler has a distinguished record as a practicing attorney in the public and private sectors, including arguing before the Supreme Court and numerous federal courts of appeal.
- From September to November 2007, Mr. Keisler served as Acting U.S. Attorney General.
- In 2003, Mr. Keisler was confirmed as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division at the Department of Justice by bipartisan voice vote. He was responsible for the work of the Justice Department's largest litigating division, consisting of approximately 700 attorneys who represent the United States in federal and state courts throughout the country. In this capacity, Mr. Keisler personally argued numerous cases in federal courts on behalf of the United States.
- The cases handled by the Civil Division involve issues of constitutional, statutory, regulatory, and common law, including matters of tort law, contract law, bankruptcy, intellectual property, immigration, foreign law, civil fraud enforcement and civil and criminal enforcement of consumer protection laws.
- From 2002 to 2003, Mr. Keisler served at the Department of Justice as Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General, and for six months during that period as Acting Associate Attorney General, the third-ranking position in the Department.
- In that capacity, Mr. Keisler assisted in managing the Department's civil litigating components (Antitrust, Civil, Civil Rights, Environment and Natural Resources, and Tax), and also assisted in the development and implementation of a wide variety of civil justice initiatives and policies.
- From 1989 until 2002, Mr. Keisler was first an associate (1989-1993), and then a partner (1993-2002), at the Washington D.C. office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood. While in private practice he successfully argued cases at every level of the federal court system, including the U.S. Supreme Court. His area of specialty included regulatory appeals before the D.C. Circuit, the court to which he is nominated, where he argued numerous times.
- From 1986 to 1988, Mr. Keisler served as an Assistant Counsel, and later Associate Counsel, in the Office of the Counsel to the President in the White House.
- Mr. Keisler has impeccable academic credentials and professional training.
- Mr. Keisler served as a law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court and to Judge Robert Bork of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
- He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1985, where he was an officer of the Yale Law Journal.
- He attended Yale College and graduated magna cum laude in 1981 with a B.A. in Political Science.
- Mr. Keisler has used his legal skills to assist clients on a pro bono and reduced fee basis.
- While in private practice, Mr. Keisler successfully represented Dr. Elhadi Omer Abd Elhalim, who helped expose the mistreatment of political prisoners at a Sudanese prison, in seeking political asylum in the United States.
- Individuals from across the political spectrum have praised Peter Keisler's nomination to the D.C. Circuit.
- Lifelong liberal Democrat and former Attorney General for the State of Maryland Stephen H. Sachs states, “while we have differing views on some matters of public policy, [Peter Keisler and I] share a core belief that judges should have no political agenda and that the political neutrality of judges is essential to citizens' respect for the rule of law."
- Virginia A. Seitz, a Democratic appointee to the Board of Directors of the Office of Congressional Compliance and former law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., supports Mr. Keisler's confirmation, because “Peter Keisler has demonstrated to me beyond any shadow of a doubt that he possesses that combination of effort, energy, intelligence, and moral courage that makes him ideally suited to serve at the highest levels of our judiciary, including on that most important federal appellate court, the District of Columbia Circuit."
- Supreme Court advocate and former law clerk to Chief Justice Warren Burger Carter Phillips writes, “Mr. Keisler is a rare person. He has astonishing professional talents. What makes Mr. Keisler particularly special, however, is that he is one of the nicest and finest people I have ever known."
- Former Dean of the Yale Law School, Professor Anthony Kronman, writes that Keisler “is that rare person in whom great intellectual distinction is joined to common human decency" and that he would make a “truly wonderful judge."
- Former Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey adds, “[Peter Keisler] is a man of great intellect, judgment, humility, and character. He is fair, honest, and compassionate and I know from personal experience that he treats people without regard to their station in life, showing the same decency and kindness to the man cleaning DOJ's hallways as to the Attorney General."
- Professor Neal Katyal of Georgetown University and Mr. Keisler's opposing counsel in Hamdan wrote a letter on behalf of his confirmation, indicating that his advocacy and character would make him a “fabulous judge" on the D.C. Circuit.
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