Barrington D. Parker Jr.

Barrington Daniels Parker Jr.
Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office October 10, 2009
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
In office October 16, 2001 – October 10, 2009
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Ralph K. Winter Jr.
Succeeded by	Susan L. Carney
Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
In office April 26, 1994 – October 18, 2001
Appointed by	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Leonard B. Sand
Succeeded by	Richard J. Holwell
Personal details
Born	(1944-08-21) August 21, 1944 Washington, D.C.
Education	Yale University (BA) Yale Law School (LLB)

Barrington Daniels Parker Jr. (born August 21, 1944 in Washington, D.C.) is a Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Background

Prior to his elevation to the Second Circuit, Parker had been a United States District Judge for seven years for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. President Bill Clinton appointed him to that position on September 15, 1994. Before that, Parker had been in private practice as an attorney in New York City for 24 years, from 1970 to 1994. His first legal job was as law clerk to United States District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson Jr. on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia from 1969 to 1970. Parker's father, Barrington Daniels Parker Sr., was a judge on that court as well, from 1969 to 1993. He was also a partner at Parker Auspitz Neesemann & Delehanty and Morrison & Foerster and an associate at Sullivan and Cromwell.

Parker studied at Yale University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965. He received a Bachelor of Laws from Yale Law School in 1969. He serves on the Yale Corporation, the university's board of trustees. He also was a member of St. Elmo, a secret society at Yale.

Federal judicial service

Parker was initially nominated to that court by President George W. Bush on May 9, 2001, to fill a seat vacated by Judge Ralph K. Winter. However, the Democratic-controlled United States Senate returned Parker's nomination just a few months later without considering it. Bush then renominated Parker, along with many other previously returned nominees, on September 4, 2001. This time, the Senate confirmed Parker's nomination a little over a month later, on October 11, 2001, by a vote of 100–0. Parker was the first judge Bush appointed to the Second Circuit.

The fact that Parker had earlier been appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York by President Bill Clinton in 1994 may explain the speed with which the Senate confirmed Parker's promotion to the Second Circuit. It was somewhat unusual for Parker to be appointed to the federal bench by one President and then later promoted by a President from the opposing political party, although several other Second Circuit judges have had a similar trajectory, including Jon O. Newman, Fred I. Parker, and Sonia Sotomayor.

Judge Parker assumed senior status on October 10, 2009.

On July 9, 2019, Parker was part of a three-judge panel which ruled that President Donald Trump cannot block people from his Twitter account for being critical of him. Writing for the panel, Parker said that the president uses his Twitter account to make official announcements and actions, so that responses to it are protected by the First Amendment. The decision affirmed an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald.

Sources

• Barrington D. Parker Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN