Michael Andre Shipp (born October 1965) is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of New Jersey The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (in case citations, D.N.J.) is a federal court in the Third Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the ...

Biography

Shipp was born in October 1965 in Paterson,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. He received his

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

in 1987. He received his

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Seton Hall University School of Law Seton Hall University School of Law is the law school of Seton Hall University, and is located in downtown Newark, New Jersey. Seton Hall Law is the only private law school in New Jersey, and, according to the ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranking ...

in 1994. He served as a law clerk for Justice James H. Coleman of the

New Jersey Supreme Court The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases challenging the ...

from 1994 to 1995. From 1995 to 2003, he worked as an associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.United States magistrate judge In United States federal courts, magistrate judges are judges appointed to assist U.S. district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges generally oversee first appearances of criminal defendants, set bail, and conduct ...

of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey (the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

U.S. Magistrate Judge in that District)Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9,

enate Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance of ...

Pages 11847-11854, from the U.S. Government Publishing Office, available online at: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRECB-2012-pt9/html/CRECB-2012-pt9-Pg11847.htm holding that position until his elevation to District Judge on that court. He is the brother of former NFL player, Marcel Shipp. Justice Shipp is a member of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...

fraternity. Shipp received his LLM in judicial studies from

Duke Law School Duke University School of Law (Duke Law School or Duke Law) is the law school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. One of Duke's 10 schools and colleges, the School of Law is a constituent academic unit th ...

in 2020.

Federal judicial service

On January 23, 2012, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

nominated Shipp to be a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey to the seat vacated by Judge

Mary Little Cooper Mary Little Cooper (born August 13, 1946) is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Education and career Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Cooper received an Artium Bacc ...

, who assumed senior status in 2011. He received a hearing before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...

on March 14, 2012 and his nomination was reported to the floor on April 19, 2012, by a voice vote, with Senator Lee recorded as voting no based on unrelated general principles. Despite the relatively uncontroversial nature of Shipp's nomination, Senator

Rand Paul Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American physician and politician serving as the junior U.S. senator from Kentucky since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he is a son of former three-time presidential candidate and 12 ...

in July 2012 held up allowing an up-or-down, Senate floor vote on Shipp's nomination over an unrelated issue, involving Paul's desire to cut off all U.S. aid to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

unless authorities there release Dr.

Shakil Afridi Shakil Afridi ( ur, ), or Shakeel Afridi, is a Pakistani physician who allegedly helped the CIA run a fake hepatitis vaccine program in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, in order to confirm Osama bin Laden's presence in the city b ...

. In a Senate floor speech on July 19, 2012, Paul announced his intention to hold up all Senate business until receiving a satisfactory answer to his question about why a Pakistani judicial panel has delayed Afridi's appeal of his conviction on charges related to assistance he provided to the CIA in the capture of

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...

. Paul also said he intended to seek a vote to terminate all aid to Pakistan. On July 19, 2012, Senate Majority Leader

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...

moved to invoke

cloture Cloture (, also ), closure or, informally, a guillotine, is a motion or process in parliamentary procedure aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. ...

in order to confirm Shipp's nomination. The cloture vote was vitiated on July 23, 2012 when Paul consented to a confirmation vote on the nomination. Shipp's nomination was confirmed that same day by a 91–1 vote, with Senator

Mike Lee Michael Shumway Lee (born June 4, 1971) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Utah, a seat he has held since 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. Lee began his career as a clerk for the U ...

again casting the sole no vote. He received his commission on July 26, 2012.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shipp, Michael Andre 1965 births African-American judges Judges of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey Living people Rutgers University alumni Seton Hall University School of Law alumni United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama 21st-century American judges United States magistrate judges

Biography

Federal judicial service

See also

References

External links