{{short description|American lawyer (born 1960)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Peter Keisler | image = Peter Keisler.jpg | office = United States Attorney General | status = Acting | president = George W. Bush | deputy = Craig S. Morford (acting) | term_start = September 18, 2007 | term_end = November 9, 2007 | predecessor = Paul Clement (acting) | successor = Michael Mukasey | office1 = United States Assistant Attorney General<br />for the Civil Division | president1 = George W. Bush | term_start1 = July 1, 2003 | term_end1 = September 18, 2007 | predecessor1 = Robert McCallum Jr. | successor1 = Gregory Katsas | office2 = United States Associate Attorney General | status2 = Acting | president2 = George W. Bush | term_start2 = October 7, 2002 | term_end2 = March 28, 2003 | predecessor2 = Jay Stephens | successor2 = Robert McCallum Jr. | office3 = Associate Counsel to the President | president3 = Ronald Reagan | term_start3 = June 5, 1987 | term_end3 = February 15, 1988 | predecessor3 = | successor3 = Michael J. Astrue<ref>{{cite web |title=Appointment of Michael J. Astrue as Associate Counsel to the President |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/appointment-michael-j-astrue-associate-counsel-the-president |website=The American Presidency Project |publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara |access-date=March 6, 2025}}</ref>
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1960|10|13}} | birth_place = Hempstead, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | party = Republican | education = Yale University (BA, JD) }} '''Peter Douglas Keisler''' (born October 13, 1960) is an American lawyer whose 2006 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit became embroiled in partisan controversy. He is a partner at the firm of Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and used to be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. Upon the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, until November 9, 2007, he was also the Acting Attorney General of the United States.
==Background== Keisler was born in Hempstead, New York. A 1977 graduate from George W. Hewlett High School in Long Island,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hewlett-woodmere.net/1478101109828497/site/default.asp|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081017212513/http://www.hewlett-woodmere.net/1478101109828497/site/default.asp|url-status=dead|title=Hewlett High School Hall of Fame|archivedate=October 17, 2008}}</ref> he went to Yale University both for undergraduate and law school. As an undergraduate, Keisler was the Chairman of the Party of the Right (Yale) and the Speaker of the Yale Political Union. He graduated ''magna cum laude'' from Yale College in 1981 and then entered Yale Law School. In 1982, he helped to co-found the Federalist Society, a conservative thinktank.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nndb.com/org/496/000042370/|title = Federalist Society}}</ref> He was also a member of the Calliopean Society. He received his J.D. in 1985. After law school, Keisler clerked for Judge Robert Bork on the D.C. Circuit from 1985 to 1986. After this clerkship, he joined the Office of Legal Counsel under President Ronald Reagan.<ref>{{cite web |title=Keisler, Peter D.: Files, 1986-1988 |url=https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/finding_aids_pdfs/219761.pdf |website=Ronald Reagan Presidential Library |access-date=October 31, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250401210035/https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/finding_aids_pdfs/219761.pdf |archive-date=April 1, 2025}}</ref> There, he worked on the failed Supreme Court nomination of his former boss, Robert Bork, and then on successful Supreme Court nomination of Anthony Kennedy. Afterward, Keisler served as a clerk for Justice Kennedy in 1988. One of his fellow clerks during that year was Miguel Estrada, another conservative nominee to the D.C. Circuit whose nomination was controversially filibustered by the Democrats in 2003. [[File:Reagan Contact Sheet C45331 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Keisler with President Ronald Reagan in 1988]] After finishing his Supreme Court clerkship, Keisler became a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Sidley Austin.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20010625222824/http://www.sidley.com/lawyers/bio.asp?ID=9006</ref> He specialized in general and appellate litigation and telecommunications law, and argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous federal Courts of Appeals. In 2002, he left his job in order to join the Department of Justice. He joined the Department on June 24, 2002, as the Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General and Acting Associate Attorney General.
Peter Keisler was sworn in as the Civil Division's Assistant Attorney General on July 1, 2003. Keisler was involved in defending the Bush Administration's policies in the Global War on Terror. He has also represented the government in defense of laws protecting access to abortion clinics and imposing requirements on telemarketing companies.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{Cite web| url=http://www.afj.org/assets/resources/nominees/updated-keisler-report-10-02-07.pdf | title=Preliminary report on the nomination of Peter D. Keisler to the D.C. circuit court of appeals | access-date=2008-04-04 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529205510/http://www.afj.org/assets/resources/nominees/updated-keisler-report-10-02-07.pdf | archive-date=2008-05-29}}</ref>
In probably the most well-known case he handled, Keisler argued on behalf of the government in ''Hamdan v. Rumsfeld'' in the D.C. Circuit and participated in both the case's appellate and Supreme Court briefs.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> In addition, he personally led the team that responded to a legal appeal by Sabin Willett, the lawyer for the seventeen remaining Uyghur captives in Guantanamo,<ref name=WorldPoliticsWatch20070418> {{cite news | url=http://worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=710 | title=Uighur Cases Highlight Legal Wrangling Over Guantanamo Detentions | author= Guy Taylor | date= April 18, 2007 | publisher=World Politics Watch | access-date=2007-04-18 }}</ref> that tested the use of a provision of the Detainee Treatment Act in terms of whether or not captives could challenge the rulings of their Combatant Status Review Tribunals.
On September 6, 2007, Keisler announced his resignation from the Department of Justice in order to "spend time with his family."<ref name=TheJurist20070907> {{cite news | url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/09/doj-official-who-led-government-case.php | date=September 7, 2007 | publisher=The Jurist | title=DOJ official who led government case against Guantanamo habeas rights resigns | author=Jaime Jansen | access-date=2007-09-12 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070910203426/http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/09/doj-official-who-led-government-case.php | archive-date=September 10, 2007 }} </ref><ref name='DOJ-Keisler-2007-09-06'> {{cite news | title=Assistant Attorney General Peter D. Keisler Announces Departure From Justice Department's Civil Division | date=September 6, 2007 | publisher= Office of Public Affairs, United States Department of Justice| url = http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2007/September/07_civ_692.html |access-date = 2007-09-20 }} </ref> On September 17, 2007, President Bush announced that Keisler had agreed to remain at the Department of Justice as Acting Attorney General until the Senate confirmation of a new Attorney General; Bush also announced the nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General at the same time.<ref name='NYTimes-Associated Press-Bush Text-2007-09-17'> {{cite news | title= Bush Text on Attorney General Nomination | date= September 17, 2007 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Bush-Mukasey-Text.html | work = New York Times | access-date = 2007-09-18 }} {{Dead link|date=August 2010|bot=RjwilmsiBot}}</ref>
==D.C. Circuit nomination under Bush== Originally, Keisler, a resident of Bethesda, Maryland and a practising lawyer in Washington, D.C., was considered for a Maryland seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit during the spring of 2001. Maryland's two Democratic senators, Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski, however, blocked the White House from making the nomination on the grounds that Keisler did not have strong enough ties to the Maryland legal community.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/26/us/washington-talk-road-to-federal-bench-gets-bumpier-in-senate.html|title=Washington Talk; Road to Federal Bench Gets Bumpier in Senate|first=Neil A.|last=Lewis|work=The New York Times |date=June 26, 2001|via=NYTimes.com}}</ref>
Keisler was later nominated for a position on the D.C. Circuit on June 29, 2006 by President George W. Bush to fill a seat vacated by John Roberts, whom Bush appointed Chief Justice of the United States in 2005. At the time, the 109th Senate was controlled by the Republican Party. On August 1, 2006, he received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate on September 29, 2006 returned the nomination to the President without acting on it, prior to adjourning for the 2006 elections, on September 30, 2006.<ref>''Nominations Status Quo with the following exceptions.'' Congressional Record. Page S10762. September 29, 2006.</ref>
After the 2006 midterm congressional elections (in which the Democrats reclaimed control of the Senate), President Bush renominated Keisler on November 15, 2006. The Senate returned the nomination to Bush on December 9, 2006 without acting on the nomination, before the 109th Congress's final adjournment. President Bush renominated Keisler on January 9, 2007 for consideration by the Senate during the 110th Congress. The Democratic leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee, however, refused to act on the nomination.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/judicialnominees/keisler.html|title=Judicial Nominations – Peter D. Keisler|website=georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov}}</ref>
It was reported at the time that the Democrats in the Senate did not want to confirm Keisler for four basic reasons. First, he was a co-founder of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group which many Democrats saw as seeking to control the federal judiciary. He had been on its board of directors from 1983 until 2000. Second, he clerked for Robert Bork, a controversial Republican judge whose nomination to the Supreme Court was embroiled in controversy before being rejected in 1987 by a Senate controlled by the Democrats. Third, during Keisler's tenure at the United States Department of Justice, he was instrumental in defending some of the most controversial policies of Republican President George W. Bush concerning the Global War on Terror.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> Finally, he was seen as being a possible Republican contender to the Supreme Court.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Senate Shutdown |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB120709316473881785 |access-date=2023-03-14 |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |date=3 April 2008 |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Current life ==
On March 18, 2008, it was announced that Keisler would be returning to his former position as a partner of Sidley Austin as a global coordinator of the firm's appellate practice in its Washington, D.C. office.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sidley.com/newsresources/newsandpress/Detail.aspx?news=3520|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080402000222/http://www.sidley.com/newsresources/newsandpress/Detail.aspx?news=3520|url-status=dead|title=Peter Keisler Rejoins Sidley Austin LLP as Partner|archivedate=April 2, 2008}}</ref> On October 21, 2008, Sidley Austin announced that Keisler would be joining the firm's Executive Committee, the committee that exercises general authority over the affairs of the firm.<ref>http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/sidley-austin-llp-adds-six/story.aspx?guid=%7B4BC13E08-8B91-4B67-BC5B-D9FAA2D57DA2%7D&dist=hppr{{Dead link | date=November 2025 | fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>
In 2025, Keisler joined the Washington Litigation Group, a boutique non profit law firm which specializes in providing pro bono legal services to individuals and institutions allegedly targeted by the Trump Administration.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Titans of the D.C. Bar Launch New Non-Profit Law Firm to Defend the Rule of Law {{!}} Washington Litigation Group | url=https://washingtonlitigationgroup.org/news/titans-of-the-dc-bar-launch-new-non-profit-law-firm/ | access-date=2025-11-21 | website=washingtonlitigationgroup.org}}</ref>
Keisler and his wife, Susan, have three children; Sydelle, Alexander, and Philip. Philip formerly played ultimate frisbee for Washington University in St. Louis. <ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.committeeforjustice.org/blog/2006/06/congrats-to-peter-keisler.html |title=Committee for Justice Blog: Congrats to Peter Keisler! |access-date=2008-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121145321/http://www.committeeforjustice.org/blog/2006/06/congrats-to-peter-keisler.html |archive-date=2008-11-21 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== See also == * List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 1) * George W. Bush judicial appointment controversies * George W. Bush Supreme Court candidates
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930062856/http://www.usdoj.gov/olp/keislerresume.htm U.S. Department of Justice resume] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060912032605/http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/Keisler.htm U.S. Department of Justice brief biography] * [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/judicialnominees/keisler.html White House biography: Judicial Nominations: Peter D. Keisler] * {{C-SPAN|1015}} * McLure, Jason [http://www.law.com/jsp/dc/PubArticleDC.jsp?id=1155559183350&hub=TopStories "Has Time Softened D.C. Circuit Nominee Peter Keisler's Partisan Edges?"] ''Legal Times.'' August 21, 2006. * [https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/nominations/867.html Presidential Nomination: Peter Douglas Keisler]
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before=Jay Stephens}} {{s-ttl|title=United States Associate Attorney General<br />{{small|Acting}}|years=2002–2003}} {{s-aft|after=Robert McCallum}} |- {{s-bef|before=Robert McCallum Jr.}} {{s-ttl|title=United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division|years=2003–2007}} {{s-aft|after=Gregory Katsas}} |- {{s-bef|before=Paul Clement<br />{{small|Acting}}}} {{s-ttl|title=United States Attorney General<br />{{small|Acting}}|years=2007}} {{s-aft|after=Michael Mukasey}} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keisler, Peter Douglas}} Category:1960 births Category:Dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy Category:George W. Bush administration personnel Category:George W. Hewlett High School alumni Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Category:Living people Category:New York (state) Republicans Category:People from The Five Towns, New York Category:United States assistant attorneys general for the Civil Division Category:United States associate attorneys general Category:Yale Law School alumni Category:Maryland Republicans Category:People associated with Sidley Austin