Michael Daly Hawkins

Michael Daly Hawkins (born February 12, 1945) is a Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and is resident in Phoenix, Arizona at the Sandra Day O'Connor United States Courthouse.

Early life and education

Born in Winslow, Arizona, Hawkins received his Bachelor of Arts degree and Juris Doctor from Arizona State University and Arizona State University College of Law in 1967 and 1970, respectively, and his Master of Laws from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1998.^[1]

Professional career

Hawkins previously had been a partner in the Phoenix law firm of Daughton Hawkins Brockelman Guinan & Patterson while in private practice from 1980 until 1994. He was the United States Attorney for Arizona from 1977 until 1980, and was a Special Prosecutor for the Navajo Nation from 1985 through 1989. He also served in the United States Marine Corps as a special courts martial military judge from 1973 until 1976. He served in private practice from 1970 until 1973.

Federal judicial service

Hawkins was nominated by President Bill Clinton on July 13, 1994, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated by Judge Thomas Tang. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 14, 1994, and received commission on September 15, 1994. He assumed senior status on February 12, 2010.

Notable case

Hawkins attracted some negative attention when he dissented against a vote for a rehearing of Safford Unified School District v. Redding. The case was brought by the mother of Savana Redding, who in 2003 was an eighth-grade student at a public middle school in Safford, Ariz. A trial judge dismissed the parent's case against the school officials, ruling that they were immune from suit. After a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed that decision, the full appeals court agreed to a rehearing. Hawkins, dissenting against the rehearing, said the case was in some ways "a close call," given the "humiliation and degradation" Savana had endured. But, Hawkins concluded, "I do not think it was unreasonable for school officials, acting in good faith, to conduct the search in an effort to obviate a potential threat to the health and safety of their students." "I would find this search constitutional," he wrote, "and would certainly forgive the Safford officials' mistake as reasonable." In an aside, he discounted Savana's school record. "Unless we think that the Fourth Amendment gives greater protection to good test takers," he added, "there is only so much weight we can give to Redding's honor-student status."

References

External links

• Michael Daly Hawkins at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Profile, FindLaw Lawyer Directory
• How Appealing's 20 Questions: Michael Daly Hawkins