{{Short description|American judge (born 1939)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Judith Rogers | image = Portrait of Judith Rogers by Simmie Knox.jpg | caption = Official portrait by Simmie Knox, 2019 | office = Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | term_start = September 1, 2022 | term_end = | office1 = Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | appointer1 = Bill Clinton | term_start1 = March 11, 1994 | term_end1 = September 1, 2022 | predecessor1 = Clarence Thomas | successor1 = Brad Garcia | office2 = Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals | term_start2 = November 1, 1988 | term_end2 = March 17, 1994 | predecessor2 = William C. Pryor | successor2 = Annice M. Wagner | office3 = Associate Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals | appointer3 = Ronald Reagan | term_start3 = September 15, 1983 | term_end3 = March 11, 1994 | predecessor3 = Catherine B. Kelly | successor3 = Vanessa Ruiz | office4 = Corporation Counsel of the District of Columbia | 1blankname4 = Mayor | 1namedata4 = Marion Barry | term_start4 = April 12, 1979 | term_end4 = September 15, 1983 | predecessor4 = Louis Robbins (acting) | successor4 = Inez Smith Reid | birth_name = Judith Ann Wilson | birth_date = {{nowrap|{{birth date and age|1939|7|27}}}} | birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | relatives = John Louis Wilson Jr. (father) | education = Radcliffe College (BA)<br />Harvard University (LLB)<br>University of Virginia (LLM) }} '''Judith Ann Wilson Rogers''' (born July 27, 1939) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
==Early life and career== Judith Ann Wilson was born on July 27, 1939, in New York City.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2018-05-20 |title=Judith Ann Wilson Rogers (1939- ) |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/rogers-judith-ann-wilson-1939/ |access-date=2023-02-21 |website=BlackPast.org |language=en-US}}</ref> Her father is noted architect John Louis Wilson Jr., known for his work in designing public buildings in New York City.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Anderson |first=Susan Heller |date=1989-11-04 |title=John L. Wilson Jr., 91, Architect Of Harlem River Houses, Is Dead |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/04/obituaries/john-l-wilson-jr-91-architect-of-harlem-river-houses-is-dead.html |access-date=2023-02-21 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3zlqdRdXH0oC |title=Confirmation Hearings on Federal Appointments: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session on Confirmations of Appointees to the Federal Judiciary |date=1995 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |others=United States Congress Senate Committee on the Judiciary |pages=12 |language=en |quote=Hazel Thomas Wilson and John Louis Wilson, Jr.}}</ref>
Rogers received an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Radcliffe College of Harvard University in 1961, a Bachelor of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1964, and a Master of Laws from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1988.<ref name=":1" />
After graduating from law school, she was a law clerk at the Juvenile Court of the District of Columbia from 1964 to 1965. She then worked as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1965 to 1968, a staff attorney at San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation from 1968 to 1969, and a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice Criminal Division from 1969 to 1971. From 1971 to 1972, she was General Counsel for the Congressional Commission on the Organization of the District Government, where she helped develop home rule legislation for the District of Columbia.<ref name=":1" /> She worked on legislative affairs in the District government from 1972 to 1979, a period in which the District held its first elections for city council and mayor under the new District of Columbia Home Rule Act. In 1979, Rogers became the first female corporation counsel for the District of Columbia.
In 1983, Rogers became an Associate Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the highest court for the District of Columbia. She served as Chief Judge of that court from 1988 to 1994.<ref>[http://jnc.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/jnc/publication/attachments/Record-JNC-Recs-Desigs-Oct13.pdf Report of District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission]</ref>
==Federal judicial service== Rogers was nominated by President Bill Clinton on November 17, 1993, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated by Judge Clarence Thomas. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 10, 1994.<ref>[https://www.congress.gov/nomination/103rd-congress/879 PN879 — Judith W. Rogers — The Judiciary].</ref> She received her commission on March 11, 1994.<ref name="FJC">{{FJC Bio|nid=1387091|inline=yes}}</ref> She became the fourth woman to be appointed to the court. On June 3, 2022, she announced her intent to assume senior status in September 2022.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wheeler|first=Lydia|title= DC Circuit's Rogers to Go Senior, Biden Gets Third Seat to Fill|url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/dc-circuits-rogers-to-go-senior-biden-gets-third-seat-to-fill|website=news.bloomberglaw.com}}</ref> She assumed senior status on September 1, 2022.<ref name="FJC"/>
In March 2017, Rogers argued the First Amendment provides the public a qualified right to access prisoners' court filings when the court, unanimous in judgment but in divided opinions, found that the press could not access classified video of Jihad Ahmed Mustafa Dhiab being force fed during the Guantanamo Bay hunger strikes.<ref>{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note| title=Recent Case: D.C. Circuit Holds Press Cannot Unseal Classified Videos of Guantanamo Bay Detainee| volume=131 | journal=Harv. L. Rev. | page=902 | url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/902-909_Online.pdf| year=2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=Dhiab v. Trump |vol=852 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=1087 |court=D.C. Cir.|date=2017|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9777096058108592010 }}</ref>
In August 2017, Rogers partially dissented when the court found that mandatory minimum sentences as applied to the Nisour Square massacre killers were unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishments.<ref>{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note| title=Recent Case: D.C. Circuit Holds It Cruel and Unusual to Impose Mandatory Thirty-Year Sentence on Military Contractors for Gun Charge| volume=131 | journal=Harv. L. Rev. | page=1465 | url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1465-1472_Online.pdf| year=2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=United States v. Slatten |vol=865 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=767 |court=D.C. Cir.|date=2017|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16297465277205285801}}</ref>
In February 2020, Rogers dissented when the majority held that the United States House Committee on the Judiciary could not enforce a subpoena upon President Trump's former White House Counsel, Don McGahn.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/29F7900862BA6CD68525851C00784758/$file/19-5331-1831001.pdf|website=www.cadc.uscourts.gov |title=House Judiciary Committee v. McGahn |access-date=28 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Savage |first1=Charlie |author-link=Charlie Savage (author) |title=Court Rules Congress Cannot Sue to Force Executive Branch Officials to Testify |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/us/mcgahn-subpoena-trump.html |access-date=29 February 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=29 February 2020 |page=A1}}</ref>
On November 12, 2021, Rogers wrote for the unanimous panel in allowing the USPS regulator to set higher mail rates.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://federalnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/111221_Postal-Policy-Council-v-PRC-opinion.pdf|title=NATIONAL POSTAL POLICY COUNCIL, PETITIONER v. POSTAL REGULATORY COMMISSION, RESPONDENT; NATIONAL NEWSPAPER ASSOCIATION, ET AL., INTERVENORS|website=Federal News Network|date=November 12, 2021|access-date=November 28, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2021/11/federal-appeals-court-upholds-usps-regulators-decision-to-allow-higher-mail-rates/|title=Federal appeals court upholds USPS regulator's decision to allow higher mail rates|website=Federal News Network|date=November 23, 2021|access-date=November 28, 2021}}</ref>
== See also == * List of African-American federal judges * List of African-American jurists * List of first women lawyers and judges in Washington D.C.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{FJC Bio|nid=1387091}} *{{C-SPAN|34625}} *[https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/marketing/women/rogers.authcheckdam.pdf American Bar Association profile]
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before=Louis Robbins<br>Acting}} {{s-ttl|title=Corporation Counsel of the District of Columbia|years=1979–1983}} {{s-aft|after=Inez Smith Reid}} |- {{s-bef|before=Catherine B. Kelly}} {{s-ttl|title=Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals|years=1983–1994}} {{s-aft|after=Vanessa Ruiz}} |- {{s-bef|before=William C. Pryor}} {{s-ttl|title=Chief Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals|years=1988–1994}} {{s-aft|after=Annice M. Wagner}} |- {{s-bef|before=Clarence Thomas}} {{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit}}|years=1994–2022}} {{s-aft|after=Brad Garcia}} {{s-end}}
{{USCourtsOfAppealsJudges}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Judith Ann Wilson}} Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American judges Category:20th-century American women judges Category:21st-century American judges Category:21st-century American women judges Category:African-American judges Category:Assistant United States attorneys Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Judges of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Category:Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Category:Lawyers from New York City Category:Radcliffe College alumni Category:United States court of appeals judges appointed by Bill Clinton Category:University of Virginia School of Law alumni