David McKeague

David William McKeague (born 1946) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Education and career

McKeague received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1968, and his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1971. He served in private practice in Lansing, Michigan until 1992. He was also an adjunct professor at Michigan State University College of Law from 1998 to 2013.

Court of appeals service On November 8, 2001, McKeague was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated by the Judge Richard Fred Suhrheinrich, who assumed senior status on August 15, 2001. On the same day, Bush also nominated Henry Saad and Susan Bieke Neilson to Michigan seats on the Sixth Circuit. On June 26, 2002, Bush nominated Richard Allen Griffin to a fourth Michigan seat on the Sixth Circuit. During the Democrat-controlled 107th Congress, all four nominations were stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee by then chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy, D-VT.

Overriding Levin and Stabenow, Hatch gave Saad, McKeague and Griffin hearings, and advanced the three nominees out of committee. Furious, Levin and Stabenow convinced their caucus to filibuster the three to prevent them from having confirmation votes.

Senate Republicans increased their numbers in the 109th Congress. Tensions between the Republicans and Democrats rose dramatically as the Republicans sought to break the filibusters of ten Bush court of appeals nominees (including Saad, McKeague and Griffin) by using the nuclear option. In order to defuse the explosive situation concerning the use of the nuclear option and Democrats' obstruction of President Bush's judicial nominations, fourteen moderate Republican and Democratic senators called the Gang of 14 joined together to forge an agreement to guarantee certain filibustered nominations up or down votes. Henry Saad and William Myers, however, were expressly excluded from the deal.

Following the 2005 Gang of 14 compromise, McKeague was given a vote along with fellow Sixth Circuit nominee Richard Allen Griffin. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 9, 2005 by a 96–0 vote, with both Levin and Stabenow ultimately voted in favor of McKeague's nomination. He received his commission on June 10, 2005.

On November 1, 2017, he assumed senior status after the confirmation of Joan Larsen as his successor.