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Karen LeCraft Henderson (born July 11, 1944) is a
United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...
of the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate co ...
and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina.


Early life, education, and career

Born and raised in Oberlin,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
, Henderson 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 Duke University in 1966 and a Juris Doctor from the
University of North Carolina School of Law The University of North Carolina School of Law is the law school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Established in 1845, Carolina Law is among the oldest law schools in the United States and is the oldest law school in North Caro ...
in 1969. Henderson then entered private practice in Chapel Hill,
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
. From 1973 to 1983, she was with the Office of the South Carolina Attorney General, ultimately in the position of Deputy Attorney General. In 1983, she returned to private practice as a member of the firm of Sinkler, Gibbs & Simons of Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina.


Federal judicial service

On June 3, 1986, Henderson was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina vacated by Judge William Walter Wilkins. She 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 13, 1986, and received her commission on June 16, 1986. Her service terminated on July 11, 1990, due to elevation to the District of Columbia Circuit. On May 8, 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominated Henderson to a seat on the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate co ...
that had been vacated by the resignation of
Kenneth Starr Kenneth Winston Starr (July 21, 1946 – September 13, 2022) was an American lawyer and judge who authored the Starr Report, which led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. He headed an investigation of members of the Clinton administration, know ...
to become
Solicitor General of the United States The solicitor general of the United States is the fourth-highest-ranking official in the United States Department of Justice. Elizabeth Prelogar has been serving in the role since October 28, 2021. The United States solicitor general represent ...
. The Senate confirmed Henderson on June 28, 1990, by unanimous consent, and she received her commission on July 5, 1990.


Second Amendment

In '' Parker, et al. v. District of Columbia'' (2007) Henderson authored a dissent in which she wrote "the right of the people to keep and bear arms relates to those Militia whose continued vitality is required to safeguard the individual States." She also wrote that "the Constitution, case law and applicable statutes all establish that the District is not a state within the meaning of the Second Amendment".


National security

In '' Rasul v. Myers'' (2008), Henderson wrote for the majority when it found that British detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp could not sue the government under the
Alien Tort Statute The Alien Tort Statute ( codified in 1948 as ; ATS), also called the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), is a section in the United States Code that gives federal courts jurisdiction over lawsuits filed by foreign nationals for torts committed in vi ...
, the
Geneva Conventions upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...
, and the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, Pub. L. No. 103-141, 107 Stat. 1488 (November 16, 1993), codified at through (also known as RFRA, pronounced "rifra"), is a 1993 United States federal law that "ensures that interests in religiou ...
for alleged torture, abuse, and denial of religious free expression. The case was reportedly the first federal appeals court decision involving the treatment of terrorism suspects in the wake of the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
. In March 2017, Henderson found that the
Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) is a United States law, codified at Title 28, §§ 1330, 1332, 1391(f), 1441(d), and 1602–1611 of the United States Code, that established criteria as to whether a foreign sovereign nation ( ...
prevented an Ethiopian dissident living with asylum in the United States from suing the Ethiopian government for infecting his home computer with FinSpy spyware and then surveilling him in Maryland. In August 2018, Henderson wrote for the unanimous panel when it again rejected Guantanamo Bay detainee Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alawi's petition for
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
, reasoned that the Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001 had not expired, that the
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012112th Congress, 1st Session, H1540CR.HSE"National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012."/ref> () is a United States federal law which among other things specifies the budget ...
had further authorized detentions, and that the international law of war permitted detention of
enemy combatants Enemy combatant is a person who, either lawfully or unlawfully, engages in hostilities for the other side in an armed conflict. Usually enemy combatants are members of the armed forces of the state with which another state is at war. In the case ...
as long as "active combat" continued.


Immigration

In October 2017, Henderson dissented in the ''en banc''-stage of '' Azar v. Garza'', arguing that an undocumented immigrant is not a "person" under the United States Constitution and so does not have rights under the Due Process Clause.


Cases involving then-President Donald Trump

In November 2019, Henderson indicated she wanted to revisit a 3-panel ruling allowing Congress to access Trump's tax records. The DC Circuit rejected her view by an 8 - 3 vote. She was the only judge to dissent who was not appointed by Trump. In February 2020, Henderson joined the opinion of Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith when the majority held that the
United States House Committee on the Judiciary The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a Standing committee (United States Congress), standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administra ...
could not enforce a
subpoena A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
upon President Trump's former
White House Counsel The White House counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Of ...
, Don McGahn. Henderson wrote a concurrence arguing that the House did not have standing to sue here, while Circuit Judge Judith W. Rogers wrote a dissent. The full D.C. Circuit rejected this position on August 8, 2020. In June 2020, Henderson joined the opinion of Circuit Judge Neomi Rao issuing a
writ of Mandamus (; ) is a judicial remedy in the form of an order from a court to any government, subordinate court, corporation, or public authority, to do (or forbear from doing) some specific act which that body is obliged under law to do (or refrain fro ...
ordering a district court judge to dismiss the charges against Michael Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty. Henderson's ruling was subsequently overturned by the full court on August 3, 2020. After hearing the case ''en banc'', the appeals court on August 31, 2020, ruled 8–2 against issuing the writ of mandamus, with Rao and Henderson joining each other's dissents. On November 30, 2021, Henderson authored a unanimous ruling requiring the Justice Department to hand over more of the Mueller report, citing the
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...
.


Criticism of hiring practices

On May 16, 2022, the Washington Post published an article reporting that Henderson "hires only men among the three or four people she selects each year for clerkships." Specifically, the article stated that of "more than 70 clerks" Henderson hired since 1990, all but one were men. Henderson responded in a statement, "I give equal treatment and consideration to all applicants and hire law clerks based only on their credentials. To the extent any contrary impression exists, I regret that such impression exists and I will use my best efforts to address it."


References


External links

* *
National Review, Article dated March 29, 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Karen LeCraft 1944 births 20th-century American judges Duke University alumni Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judges of the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina Living people North Carolina lawyers United States court of appeals judges appointed by George H. W. Bush United States district court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan University of North Carolina School of Law alumni 20th-century American women judges