Patrick A. Shea (born February 28, 1948) is an American lawyer, author, politician, government official, and legal scholar known for his work on

freedom of the press Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic News media, media, especially publication, published materials, should be conside ...

cases. He also served as director of the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

in 1997 and 1998.

Early life and education

Shea was born at the

Salt Lake Regional Medical Center The Salt Lake Regional Medical Center is a 158-bed hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. Salt Lake Regional Medical Center was formerly known as Holy Cross Hospital, which was one of the few Catholic hospitals in Utah for over a century. The hospital ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. He lived with his parents in

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

for six years before returning to Utah. He graduated from Highland High School in 1966. Shea earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He then was a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he studied human sciences and was part of the first graduating cohort of the degree. He earned a

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

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1975.

Career

Government

Shea served as the assistant to the staff director of the

Church Committee The Church Committee (formally the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence ...

in 1975 and 1976. Shea was counsel to the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the drafting process of the Taiwan Relations Act. Shea served as a commissioner on the Gore Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, which investigated the

TWA Flight 800 Trans World Airlines Flight 800 (TWA800) was a Boeing 747-100 that exploded and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches, New York, on July 17, 1996, at about 8:31pm. Eastern Daylight Time, EDT, 12 minutes after takeoff from John F. K ...

, in 1996 and 1997. Prior to becoming head of the BLM, Shea was the head of City Creek Canyon Park in Salt Lake City. In 1997 and 2000, Shea served as the Director of the

. He served as the director of the Bureau of Land Management and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management under President Clinton.

Academics

He has taught courses at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

, the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

, and

Westminster College (Utah) Westminster College is a private college in Salt Lake City, Utah. The college comprises four schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, the School of Education, and the School of Nursing and Health Sci ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Since his return to Utah in 2001, Shea has been a member of the

political science department's faculty. Shea was an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University from 2001 to 2009. Shea was a fellowship adviser to honors program at Westminster College, Salt Lake City in collaboration with 'The Living Arts Experience: A Seminar in Liberal Ideals'. Shea taught a course on Public Lands 2019/20 and co-taught a graduate seminar on wild land fires. While at Law School taught two courses on the Political Processes and the Constitution. Shea became chair of

Utah Democratic Party The Utah Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Utah. Its platform focuses on economic security, equal opportunity, the common good, and American leadership. The party also describes itself as a big tent par ...

in 1983 and chaired state presidential campaigns of

Walter Mondale Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928 – April 19, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota ...

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history a ...

, and

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

. He was a candidate for governor of Utah in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, placing second in the Democratic primary. He was the Democratic nominee in the 1994 United States Senate election in Utah. Shea co-authored with Rodney K. Smith ''Religion and the Press: Keeping First Amendment Values in Balance'', a book which argued that Freedom of the Press had been taken too far in allowing the media to publish unsubstantiated claims that demean religious leaders.

Law

Shea represented Massachusetts Democratic Party in seeking to gain enough information to exclude

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

from running for governor in Massachusetts. He represented Skip Knowles after he was fired by ''

The Salt Lake Tribune ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871." History ...

'' for plagiarism. He represented

Steven Greenstreet Steven Greenstreet (born March 14, 1979) is an American documentary filmmaker, known for the controversial film, '' 8: The Mormon Proposition'', which was selected to premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Currently residing in New York Ci ...

's defense against Kay Anderson's attempts to prevent Greenstreet's use of an interview with Anderson in a documentary film ''

This Divided State ''This Divided State'' is a documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, hist ...

''. Shea also was one of the lawyers for

Brent W. Jeffs Brent W. Jeffs is an American author, advocate, and former member of the influential Jeffs family in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church). Brent wrote the memoir ''Lost Boy'' with author Maia Szalavitz, whi ...

in his sexual molestation suit against his uncle Warren Jeffs. He is admitted to the bar in the

District of Columbia ) , 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, ...

and Utah.

Personal life

Shea is an Irish Catholic.

Sources

''Deseret News'', February 13, 2001

webpage for Patrick A. Shea

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shea, Patrick 1948 births Alumni of the University of Oxford American Rhodes Scholars Brigham Young University faculty Bureau of Land Management personnel Clinton administration personnel Harvard Law School alumni Kansas State University faculty Living people Politicians from Salt Lake City Stanford University alumni State political party chairs of Utah United States Department of the Interior officials University of Utah faculty Utah Democrats Utah lawyers Lawyers from Washington, D.C. Westminster College (Utah) faculty Lawyers from Salt Lake City Catholics from Utah