Gregory G. Katsas

Gregory George Katsas (born August 6, 1964) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was appointed in 2017 by President Donald Trump. Before his appointment to the bench, Katsas served as Deputy White House Counsel in the first Trump administration, as an assistant attorney general in the United States Department of Justice, and as a partner at the law firm Jones Day.

Early life and education Katsas was born on August 6, 1964, in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were Greek immigrants. Katsas graduated from Princeton University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in philosophy. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor of the Harvard Law Review and an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. He argued more than 75 appeals, including three cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. He was at Jones Day from 1992 to 2001, becoming a partner in 1999.

On October 17, 2017, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On November 9, 2017, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote.

On November 27, 2017, the United States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 52–48 vote. On November 28, 2017, by a party line vote except for John Neely Kennedy R-LA and Joe Manchin D-WV, with Bob Corker and John McCain absent, Katsas was confirmed by a 50–48 vote. He received his judicial commission on December 8, 2017.

He is currently considered the top “feeder” judge, sending the highest number of his law clerks to clerk on the Supreme Court since his appointment to the bench in 2018. Katsas “has sent at least 18 of his law clerks to the high court since the October 2019 term,” according to National Law Journal.

Notable cases

In 2017, Katsas recused himself from matters regarding the Mueller probe on which he personally worked, but said he would consider the facts of a case before making a decision.

On September 9, 2020, President Trump included him on a list of his potential nominees to the Supreme Court. He has been suggested as a potential nominee in a second Trump administration.

On July 6, 2021, Judge Katsas gave the tie-breaking 2–1 vote that overturned the FDA's ban on GEDs used predominantly by the Judge Rotenberg Center on disabled patients in Canton, MA.

On April 7, 2023, Katsas authored a dissent in Fischer v. United States, a case interpreting whether January 6 participants could be charged under 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c), a provision of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act enacted to combat corporate fraud that penalizes anyone who “otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding.” Rejecting the government's argument, Katsas argued that interpreting “the structure and history of section 1512, and with decades of precedent applying section 1512(c) only to acts that affect the integrity or availability of evidence” suggest that the government's reading is “implausibly broad and unconstitutional in a significant number of its applications.” and also a member of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Awards In 2009, he was awarded the Edmund Randolph award for outstanding service, the highest award bestowed by the United States Department of Justice.

Scholarly works