Kathryn Kimball Mizelle

Kathryn Kimball Mizelle[1] (née Kathryn Anne Kimball; born 1987)[2] is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. At age 33, she was the youngest person chosen by President Donald Trump for a lifetime judicial appointment.[3]

Kathryn Kimball Mizelle
Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida
Assumed office
November 20, 2020
Appointed byDonald Trump
Preceded byVirginia M. Hernandez Covington
Personal details
Born
Kathryn Anne Kimball

1987 (age 35–36)
Lakeland, Florida, U.S.
SpouseChad Mizelle
EducationCovenant College (BA)
University of Florida (JD)

On April 18, 2022, Mizelle struck down the CDC's federal COVID-19 mask mandate on airplanes and public transportation.

Early life and education

Mizelle was born in 1987 in Lakeland, Florida. After graduating from Lakeland Christian School in 2005, she attended Covenant College, graduating in 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude in economics with a minor in philosophy. She then attended the University of Florida's Fredric G. Levin College of Law, where she was the executive notes and comments editor of the Florida Law Review. She graduated in 2012 with a Juris Doctor summa cum laude.[4][5][6]

Career

Upon graduating from law school, Mizelle served as a law clerk to Judge James S. Moody Jr. of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida from 2012 to 2013 and to Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit from 2013 to 2014.

She worked as a trial attorney in the Tax Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2014 to 2017, and was detailed as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from 2014 to 2015. Mizelle was counsel to the United States Associate Attorney General from 2017 to 2018.

In 2018, she briefly clerked for Judge Gregory G. Katsas of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and then clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States from 2018 to 2019.

Mizelle is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.[7] She has been a member of the Federalist Society since 2012.[2][8]

Before becoming a judge, Mizelle was an associate at Jones Day from 2019 to 2020,[9] where she worked on civil and criminal litigation and appeals.[4][10]

Federal judicial service
Mizelle in 2021

On August 12, 2020, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Mizelle to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.[11] At the age of 33, she was the youngest person chosen by Trump for a lifetime judicial appointment.[12][13][3] On September 8, 2020, her nomination was sent to the Senate to fill the seat vacated by Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington, who assumed senior status on July 12, 2020.[14] On September 9, 2020, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee.[15] The American Bar Association (ABA)'s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary, which rates the qualifications of federal judicial nominees, rated Mizelle "Not Qualified" to serve as a federal trial court judge,[16] noting that "Since her admission to the bar Ms. Mizelle has not tried a case, civil or criminal, as lead or co-counsel."[17] Before her appointment, the nominee had only taken part in two trials — both one-day trials in a state court conducted while she was still in law school.[9] She had eight years of legal experience at the time of her nomination;[17] the ABA typically requires 12 years to give a nominee a rating of "Qualified". The ABA said Mizelle "has a very keen intellect, a strong work ethic and an impressive resume... her integrity and demeanor are not in question."[18] But, the committee wrote, "These attributes... simply do not compensate for the short time she has actually practiced law and her lack of meaningful trial experience."[17] On October 22, 2020, the Judiciary Committee reported her nomination by a 12–0 vote, with all Democratic senators boycotting the meeting.[19]

On November 18, 2020, the United States Senate invoked cloture on her nomination by a 49–43 vote.[20] Mizelle’s nomination was confirmed later that day by a 49–41 vote.[21] She received her judicial commission on November 20, 2020.[22]

She joined the first group of judges appointed by a president who had lost reelection at the time of confirmation since Jimmy Carter's appointment of Stephen Breyer to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in November 1980.[9][23]

Tenure

On April 18, 2022, Mizelle struck down the federal COVID-19 mask mandate on airplanes and public transportation, ruling that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had no authority to implement such a mandate.[24] Mizelle also stated that the CDC improperly invoked the good faith exception to the Administrative Procedure Act's notice-and-comment rulemaking process. The US Supreme Court had three times refused to issue injunctions against the CDC's mask mandate.[25] In her ruling, Mizelle argued that the 1944 statute that gives the federal government authority to combat communicable disease as part of "sanitation" efforts was being misapplied because sanitation solely referred to "measures that clean something" and masks do not clean anything in that regard.[26] She also argued that travelers were being restricted from the freedom to travel based on an arbitrary condition, and that longstanding case law surrounding the right to enforce "detention and quarantine" by the government was applicable only to those who were actually sick.[26] On April 20, the Department of Justice announced it would be appealing the ruling after the CDC deemed the mandate was still necessary.[27] According to Georges C. Benjamin of the American Public Health Association, Mizelle's ruling had the potential to set a precedent reducing government's ability to respond in public health emergencies.[28]

Personal life

Mizelle is married to lawyer Chad Mizelle.[29][30][31]

See also

References
  1. Goldstein, Richard (September 13, 2016). "Alumna makes history as UF Law's first SCOTUS clerk". Fredric G. Levin College of Law. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020.
  2. United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees: Kathryn Mizelle. Accessed September 7, 2022.
  3. Allassan, Fadel (November 19, 2020). "Senate confirms Trump's youngest judicial pick as GOP breaks tradition". Axios. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  4. "Kathryn Kimball Mizelle | Lawyers". www.jonesday.com. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
  5. "My LCS Story: Kathryn Kimball Mizelle". Lakeland Christian School. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  6. "5 things to know about Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, Tampa judge who struck down travel mask mandate". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  7. Strom, Roy (February 18, 2020). "Jones Day Hires Five Supreme Court Clerks in Latest Coup". Bloomberg Law. Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a University of Florida Levin College of Law graduate who clerked for Thomas and will work in the firm's Washington and Miami offices.
  8. Bendery, Jennifer (October 22, 2020). "Senate Republicans Advance Another Trump Court Pick Rated 'Not Qualified'". HuffPost. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
  9. Senate confirms Trump's youngest federal judge to serve in Tampa, Tampa Bay Times, Jamal Thalji, November 18, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  10. "33-Year-Old Trump Judicial Pick Attacked Over Experience – Law360". www.law360.com. August 21, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  11. "President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved August 12, 2020 – via National Archives.
  12. Thomsen, Jacqueline (November 18, 2020). "Lame Duck Senate Confirms Trump's Youngest Judge Yet". National Law Journal. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  13. Thalji, Jamal (November 19, 2020). "Senate confirms Trump's youngest federal judge to serve in Tampa". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  14. "Eleven Nominations and Three Withdrawals Sent to the Senate", White House, September 8, 2020
  15. United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Nominations for September 9, 2020
  16. "STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY RATINGS OF ARTICLE III AND ARTICLE IV JUDICIAL NOMINEES 116TH CONGRESS" (PDF). American Bar Association. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
  17. "Federal judicial nominee lacks enough experience, ABA says in letter explaining 'not qualified' rating". ABA Journal. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  18. September 9, Jacqueline Thomsen (September 9, 2020). "Jones Day Associate, Former Thomas Clerk 'Not Qualified' for Federal Bench, ABA Says". National Law Journal. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  19. Results of Executive Business Meeting – October 22, 2020, Senate Judiciary Committee
  20. "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture: Kathryn Kimball Mizelle to be United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida)" United States Senate, November 18, 2020.
  21. "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, of Florida, to be United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida)" United States Senate, November 18, 2020.
  22. Kathryn Kimball Mizelle at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
  23. Trump, GOP Defy Precedent with Lame Duck Judicial Appointees (1), Bloomberg Law, Madison Alder, Seth Stern and John Crawley. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  24. "Florida judge overturns CDC mask mandate for planes and public transit". CNBC. April 18, 2022.
  25. "CDC mask mandate for travelers struck down by federal judge". CNN. April 18, 2022.
  26. Sneed, Tierney (April 18, 2022). "CDC mask mandate for travelers no longer in effect following judge's ruling, official says". CNN. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  27. Stolberg, Sheryl (April 20, 2022). "Justice Dept. Appeals to Reinstate Transportation Mask Mandate". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  28. Murphy, Heather; Savage, Charlie (April 25, 2022). "Who Ended the Travel Mask Mandate? A Vaccine Critic, a Florida Judge and 2 Anxious Travelers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 26, 2022.
  29. "5 things to know about Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, Tampa judge who struck down travel mask mandate". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  30. Perlman, Derek Kravitz, Al Shaw, Claire (March 7, 2018). "Trump Town - Justice - Chad Robert Mizelle". ProPublica. Retrieved November 1, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  31. Perlman, Derek Kravitz, Al Shaw, Claire (March 7, 2018). "Trump Town - White House Office - Chad Robert Mizelle". ProPublica. Retrieved November 1, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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