Michael Chagares
2006 - Present
18
Michael A. Chagares is the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. He joined the court in 2006 after being nominated by President George W. Bush (R).[1]
Early life and education
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chagares graduated from Gettysburg College with his bachelor's degree in 1984 and from Seton Hall School of Law with his J.D. in 1987.[1]
Professional career
- 2006-present: Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit
- 2021-present: Chief judge
- 2004-2006: Private practice, Hackensack, N.J.
- 1991-2006: Adjunct professor, Seton Hall School of Law
- 1990-2004: U.S. Attorney's office, District of New Jersey
- 1999-2004: Chief, civil division
- 1990-1999: Assistant U.S. attorney
- 1988-1990: Private practice, New Jersey
- 1987-1988: Law clerk, Hon. Morton Greenberg, United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit[1]
Judicial career
Third Circuit Court of Appeals
 |
| Nominee Information |
| Name: Michael A. Chagares |
| Court: United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit |
| Progress |
| Confirmed 69 days after nomination. |
| Questionnaire: |
| Hearing Transcript: Hearing Transcript |
| QFRs: (Hover over QFRs to read more) |
Chagares was nominated by President George W. Bush (R) on January 25, 2006, to a seat vacated by Michael Chertoff as Chertoff served as Secretary of Homeland Security. The American Bar Association rated Chagares Unanimously Well Qualified for the nomination.[2] Hearings on Chagares' nomination were held before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary on March 14, 2006, and his nomination was reported by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) on March 30, 2006. Chagares was confirmed on a recorded 98-0 vote of the U.S. Senate on April 4, 2006, and he received his commission on April 20, 2006.[1][3]
Chagares was appointed as chief judge of the court on December 4, 2021.[4]
Noteworthy cases
Computer hacker's conviction and sentence vacated for lack of proper venue (2014)
- See also: United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit (U.S. v. Auernheimer, 13-1816)
- See also: United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit (U.S. v. Auernheimer, 13-1816)
On April 11, 2014, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit, composed of Judges Chagares, Joseph Greenaway, Thomas Vanaskie, vacated a hacker's conviction and prison sentence on charges relating to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).[5]
In the underlying case, in June 2010, Andrew “weev” Auernheimer and co-conspirator Daniel Spiller discovered a security flaw on AT&T's network server that allowed them to obtain the email addresses of 114,000 iPad users. Auernheimer emailed the details of their find to several media outlets, and shared the full list of emails generated with a writer from Gawker, a news and gossip website. While Auernheimer resided in Arkansas and the servers affected were located in Texas and Georgia, he was prosecuted in New Jersey federal court, which Auernheimer argued was an improper venue under the circumstances. The District of New Jersey rationalized this course of action by saying that the email addresses of 4,500 New Jersey residents appeared on Auernheimer's list.[5]
In 2012, a jury convicted Auernheimer of identity fraud and conspiracy to access a computer without authorization, and in March 2013, he was sentenced by Judge Susan Wigenton to forty-one months in prison. On appeal to the Third Circuit, the three-judge panel found that Auernheimer's conviction must be vacated because of improper venue. Writing for the court in a precedential decision, Judge Chagares noted that New Jersey was "not the site of either essential conduct element" of the CFAA -- Auernheimer neither accessed nor obtained the unauthorized information in the state at any time.[5] Chagares continued, writing:
| “ | [E]ven assuming that defective venue could be amenable to harmless error review, the venue error here clearly affected Auernheimer’s substantial rights. ... The venue error in this case is not harmless because there was no evidence that any of the essential conduct elements occurred in New Jersey. If Auernheimer’s jury had been properly instructed on venue, it could not have returned a guilty verdict; the verdict rendered in this trial would have been different.[5][6] | ” |
Auernheimer was released after having spent thirteen months in prison.[5]
See also
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit
- Judge Chagares' biography from the Federal Judicial Center
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Federal Judicial Center, "Chagares, Michael A.," accessed December 6, 2021
- ↑ American Bar Association, "Ratings of Article III judicial nominees, 109th Congress," accessed December 20, 2016
- ↑ United States Congress, "PN 1180 — Michael A. Chagares — The Judiciary," accessed December 20, 2016
- ↑ United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, "NEWS from THE THIRD CIRCUIT," accessed December 6, 2021
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 RT, "AT&T hacker ‘weev’ to walk free after appeals court agrees to vacate conviction," April 11, 2014
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit 2006-Present |
Succeeded by - |
| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 |
Armijo • Bates • Beistline • Blackburn • Bowdre • Bunning • Bury • Caldwell • Camp • Cassell • Cebull • Clement • Clifton • Crane • Eagan • Engelhardt • Friot • Gibbons • Granade • Gregory • Gritzner • Haddon • Hartz • Heaton • Hicks • Howard • Johnson • Jorgenson • Krieger • Land • Leon • Mahan • Martinez • Martone • McConnell • Melloy • Mills • O'Brien • Parker • Payne • Prost • Reeves • Riley • Robinson • Rogers • Royal • Shedd • B. Smith • L. Smith • Walton • Wooten • Zainey | ||
| 2002 |
Africk • Anderson • Autrey • Baylson • Cercone • Chesler • Clark • Collyer • Conner • Conti • Corrigan • Davis • Davis • Dorr • England • Ericksen • Fuller • Gardner • Godbey • Griesbach • Hanen • Hovland • Hudson • Jones • Jordan • Kinkeade • Klausner • Kugler • Leighton • Linares • Moses • Marra • Martinez • Martini • Mays • McVerry • Phillips • Raggi • Reade • Rose • Rufe • Savage • Schwab • Smith • St. Eve • Walter • White • Wolfson | ||
| 2003 |
Adams • Altonaga • Bea • Benitez • Bennett • Boyle • Brack • Breen • Browning • Burns • Bybee • Callahan • Campbell • Cardone • Carney • Castel • Chertoff • Cohn • Colloton • Conrad • Coogler • Cook • Cooke • Crone • Der-Yeghiayan • Drell • Duffey • Duncan • Erickson • Feuerstein • Figa • Filip • Fischer • Fisher • Flanagan • Floyd • Frost • Gibson • Greer • Gruender • Guirola • Hall • Hardiman • Hayes • Herrera • Hicks • Holmes • Holwell • Hopkins • Houston • Irizarry • Jones • Junell • Karas • Kravitz • Martinez • McKnight • Minaldi • Montalvo • Mosman • Otero • Pickering • Prado • Pratter • Proctor • Quarles • Robart • Roberts • Robinson • Rodgers • Rodriguez • Sabraw • Sanchez • Saylor • Selna • Sharpe • Simon • Springmann • Stanceu • Steele • Stengel • Suko • Sutton • Sykes • Titus • Townes • Tymkovich • Van Antwerpen • Varlan • Wake • Wesley • White • Woodcock • Yeakel | ||
| 2004 |
Alvarez • Benton • Boyko • Covington • Diamond • Harwell • Kelley • Schiavelli • Schneider • Starrett • Watson | ||
| 2005 |
Alito • Barrett • Batten • Bianco • Brown • Burgess • Conrad • Cox • Crotty • Delgado-Colon • Dever • DuBose • Griffin • Griffith • Johnston • Kendall • Larson • Ludington • Mattice • McKeague • Neilson • Owen • Pryor • Roberts • Sandoval • Schiltz • Seabright • Smoak • Van Tatenhove • Vitaliano • Watkins • Zouhary | ||
| 2006 |
Besosa • Bumb • Chagares • Cogan • Gelpi • Golden • Gordon • Gorsuch • Guilford • Hillman • Holmes • Ikuta • D. Jordan • K. Jordan • Kavanaugh • Miller • Moore • Shepherd • Sheridan • Smith • Whitney • Wigenton | ||
| 2007 |
Anderson • Aycock • Bailey • Bryant • Davis • DeGiusti • Dow • Elrod • Fairbank • Fischer • Frizzell • Gutierrez • Hall • Hardiman • Haynes • Howard • Jarvey • Jones • Jonker • Kapala • Kays • Laplante • Limbaugh • Lioi • Livingston • Maloney • Mauskopf • Mendez • Miller • Neff • O'Connor • O'Grady • O'Neill • Osteen • Ozerden • Reidinger • Sammartino • Schroeder • Settle • Smith • Snow • Southwick • Suddaby • Sullivan • Thapar • Tinder • Van Bokkelen • Wood • Wright • Wu | ||
| 2008 |
Agee • Anello • Arguello • Brimmer • Gardephe • Goldberg • Jones • Kethledge • Lawrence • Matsumoto • Melgren • Murphy • Scriven • Seibel • Slomsky • Trenga • Waddoups • White | ||
