Miguel Angel Estrada (born September 25, 1961) is an American lawyer who became embroiled in controversy following his 2001 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Concerned that he was too conservative, Democrats in the Senate used a filibuster to block his nomination. A lawyer is a person who advises clients in legal matters and represents them in courts of law and in other forms of dispute resolution. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... The presidential seal was first used by president Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ... The United States courts of appeals (or circuit courts) are the mid-level appellate courts of the United States federal court system. ... The Democratic Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... In a legislature or other decision making body, a filibuster is an attempt to extend debate upon a proposal in order to delay or completely prevent a vote on its passage. ...

Biography

Estrada was born to an upper-class family in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. After his parents divorced, he immigrated to the United States to join his mother when he was 17, arriving with a limited command of English. Presidential Palace Replica of Pre-Columbian Temple Pyramid in Park Tegucigalpa, population 897,000 (1997), is the capital of Honduras and the republics largest city. ... Divorce or dissolution of marriage is YOUR MUM the ending of a marriage before the death of either spouse, which can be contrasted with an annulment which is a declaration that a marriage is void, though the effects of marriage may be recognized in such unions, such as spousal support... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree from Columbia College, New York in 1983. He received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree magna cum laude in 1986 from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Estrada served as a law clerk to Judge Amalya L. Kearse of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court. Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. ... The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an honor society which considers its mission to be fostering and recognizing excellence in undergraduate liberal arts and sciences. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Columbia University is a private university in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City and a member of the Ivy League. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Juris Doctor (J.D., Latin for Doctor of Jurisprudence) is a professional law degree typically awarded by an accredited law school in the United States to a student who has successfully completed three years of study in law. ... J.D. redirects here; for alternate uses, see J.D. (disambiguation) J.D. is an abbreviation for the Latin Juris Doctor, also called a Doctor of Law or Doctorate of Jurisprudence, and is the law degree typically awarded by an accredited U.S. law school after successfully completing three years... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Harvard Law School (HLS) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ... The Harvard Law Review is a journal of legal scholarship published by a student-run group at Harvard Law School. ... // A law school is an institution where future lawyers obtain legal degrees. ... In the United States, a law clerk is a person who assists a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. ... Justice Anthony Kennedy Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) has been a US Supreme Court Associate Justice since 1988. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States...

From 1990 until 1992, Estrada served as Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York. In 1992, he joined the United States Department of Justice as an Assistant to the Solicitor General for the Clinton Administration. In those capacities, Estrada represented the government in numerous jury trials and in many appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, he practiced law in New York with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Order: 42nd President Term of Office: January 20, 1993–January 20, 2001 Preceded by: George H. W. Bush Succeeded by: George W. Bush Date of birth: August 19, 1946 Place of birth: Hope, Arkansas Date of death: Place of death: First Lady: Hillary Rodham Clinton Political party: Democratic Vice President... Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz is a law firm headquartered in New York City, USA. It is consistently the most profitable firm in the world on a per-partner basis according to the American Lawyers annual AmLaw 100 Survey. ...

Nomination

George W. Bush nominated Estrada to a position on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on May 9, 2001; the court is very influential, and is widely seen as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. He received a unanimous "well-qualified" rating from the American Bar Association. Democrats opposed the nomination, claiming that Estrada had not provided enough information about his legal views. A bipartisan group of former Solicitors General wrote a letter objecting to the Democrats' demand for memos that Estrada had written while he was with the office on the grounds that such a request was unprecedented and would endanger the Solicitor General Office's ability to provide confidential legal advice to the Executive Branch. Some observers claimed that the Democrats also wished to avoid giving Bush points with Hispanic voters. The Democrats hotly contested this, however internal memos to Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin mention liberal interest groups' desire to keep Estrada off the court because his Latino heritage made him "especially dangerous" as a potential future Supreme Court nominee [1]. After Democrats conducted a protracted filibuster of Estrada's nomination (twenty-eight months), he withdrew his name on September 4th of 2003. Bush nominated Thomas B. Griffith in his place, who was confirmed in 2005. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. ... May 9 is the 129th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (130th in leap years). ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... American Bar Associations Washington, DC office The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. ... The United States Solicitor General is the individual tasked with arguing for the United States Government in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, when the government is party to a case. ... Richard Joseph Durbin (born November 21, 1944) is an American politician. ... In a legislature or other decision making body, a filibuster is an attempt to extend debate upon a proposal in order to delay or completely prevent a vote on its passage. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Thomas B. Griffith Thomas Beall Griffith (born July 5, 1954 in Yokohama, Japan) is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. ...

Estrada is currently (as of 2005) a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where he is a member of the firm's Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group and the Business Crimes and Investigations Practice Group. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is an international law firm, founded in Los Angeles in 1873. ...

References

Lane, Charles. "Nominee for Court Faces Two Battles; Senate Panel to Focus on Ideology, Immigrant Past". Washington Post. September 24, 2002. ...

• Biographical sketch at the United States Department of Justice.