Randolph D. Moss

Federal agency service

In 2000, when Moss was an assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the United States Department of Justice, he wrote the memorandum opinion advising that the Department could not indict a sitting president. "The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions." ) cited the Moss memorandum in partial justification of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's decision not to indict President Donald Trump. "Given the role of the Special Counsel as an attorney in the Department of Justice and the framework of the Special Counsel regulations, see 28 U.S.C. § 515; 28 C.F.R. § 600.7(a), this Office accepted OLC's legal conclusion for the purpose of exercising prosecutorial jurisdiction." He received a hearing before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on May 20, 2014. On June 19, 2014 his nomination was reported out of committee by a 11–7 vote. On September 18, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on his nomination. On November 12, 2014, the United States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 53–45 vote. On November 13, 2014, his nomination was confirmed by a 54–45 vote. He received his judicial commission on November 14, 2014.

On October 16, 2018, Moss ruled against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after she stopped an Obama-era rule from taking effect which protected students against fraud from for-profit colleges.

On March 1, 2020, Moss ruled that President Donald Trump unlawfully installed Ken Cuccinelli as acting Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and that therefore, certain directives related to removal of undocumented immigrants seeking asylum he implemented “must be set aside.”

On December 26, 2020, Moss ruled that the United States Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled the execution of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row. On January 1, 2021, a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated Moss's ruling.

On July 19, 2021, Moss sentenced Paul Hodgkins, a Florida man who participated in the 2021 United States Capitol attack to eight months in prison. Moss acknowledged that this man was part of a larger mob, but said that "Although you were only one member of a larger mob, you actively participated in a larger event that threatened the Capitol and democracy itself." At the time of his sentencing, Hodgkins was the third person to be sentenced for their participation in the January 6 riot, and his sentence is the longest thus far.

On March 31, 2026, Moss ruled that a Trump White House executive order to defund NPR and PBS violated the First Amendment and is therefore "unlawful and unenforceable."