Miguel Estrada is an American lawyer who ignited controversy following his 2002 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals. Concerns over his allegedly too-conservative ideology prompted Democrats in the Senate to block his nomination through parliamentary tactics, leading him to withdraw his name from consideration.
Biography
Estrada was born to an upper-class family in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. After his parents divorced, he immigrated to the United States to join his mother when he was 17, arriving with a limited command of English.
He graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree from Columbia College, New York in 1983. He received a juris doctor degree magna cum laude in 1986 from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Estrada served as a law clerk to the Honorable Amalya L. Kearse of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then clerked for the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court.
From 1990 until 1992, Estrada served as Assistant U.S. Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York. In 1992, he joined the United States Department of Justice as an Assistant to the Solicitor General. In those capacities, Estrada represented the government in numerous jury trials and in many appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Before joining the U.S. Attorney's Office, he practiced law in New York with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Nomination
George W. Bush nominated Estrada to a position on the D.C. Court of Appeals in 2002; the court is very influential, and is widely seen as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court, where Estrada would be the first Hispanic nominee. Democrats opposed the nomination, claiming that Estrada was too conservative a nominee and that he had not provided enough information about his legal views. Some observers claimed that the Democrats also wished to avoid giving Bush points with Hispanic voters, although the Democrats hotly contested this. After a protracted filibuster of Estrada's nomination, he withdrew his name in September of 2003.
Estrada is currently (as of 2005) a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where he is a member of the firm's Appellate and Constitutional Law Practice Group and the Business Crimes and Investigations Practice Group.
References
Lane, Charles. "Lawmakers Press Nominee; Democrats Seek Justice Memos, Challenge Estrada's Credibility". Washington Post. September 27, 2005.
Lane, Charles. "Nominee for Court Faces Two Battles; Senate Panel to Focus on Ideology, Immigrant Past". Washington Post. September 24, 2002.
