Gordon Jay Quist (born November 12, 1937) is a Senior

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan The United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan (in case citations, W.D. Mich.) is the federal district court with jurisdiction over of the western portion of the state of Michigan, including the entire Upper Peninsula and t ...

Education and career

Born in Grand Rapids,

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, Quist received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree from Michigan State University in 1959 and a Juris Doctor from George Washington University Law School in 1962. He was in private practice in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

from 1962 to 1964. He was in private practice in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

from 1964 to 1966 and in Grand Rapids from 1967 to 1992.

Federal judicial service

On March 20, 1992, Quist was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to a new seat on the

created by 104 Stat. 5089. Quist was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on June 26, 1992, and received his commission on June 30, 1992. He assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on January 1, 2006. He assumed inactive senior status effective January 1, 2023.

Notable opinions

In 2009, Quist reversed a ruling he had earlier made denying an American reservist the right to sue for relief after agents of

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

had illegally foreclosed on the reservist's house (in violation of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act). Quist subsequently ruled that punitive damages against Deutsche Bank and its agents were not warranted. On December 27, 2011, Quist ruled that homeless sex offenders may stay overnight at shelters near schools in Grand Rapids despite a state law prohibiting them from living within 1,000 feet of a school. Quist rejected a request for an injunction to prevent enforcement of provisions of the Sex Offenders Registration Act and student safety zones. He determined that homeless people do not "reside" in emergency shelters if they go there only at night to sleep and have no guarantee of a place to stay on a given night. On December 18, 2014, a federal appeals panel reversed a previous ruling by Judge Quist that had prevented a man from owning a firearm because he had been committed to a psychiatric hospital on January 2, 1986 following "an emotionally devastating divorce." Tyler was crying non-stop, not sleeping, depressed, and suicidal at this time. A probate court involuntarily committed the then-43-year-old to a treatment facility. Judge Quist originally granted the federal government's request to dismiss Tyler's case, determined that lawmakers purposely made it difficult for those with mental illness in their past, no matter how long ago, to legally own a gun. Recent psychiatric evaluations showed that Tyler, who has no criminal record, isn't a risk to himself or others, and has no substance-abuse issues. The panel said Congress, through its relief-from-disabilities program, has already decided that not all previously committed to a mental institution are so dangerous that they are permanently denied a right to a firearm. Tyler was denied access to relief because the state he lived in had no such programs.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quist, Gordon Jay 1937 births Living people Michigan State University alumni George Washington University Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan United States district court judges appointed by George H. W. Bush 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges