Thomas Samuel Zilly (born January 1, 1935) is a
Senior United States district judge of the
in
Seattle,
Washington.
Education and career
Born in
Detroit, Michigan, Zilly received a
Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of Michigan in 1956 and 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
Cornell Law School
Cornell Law School is the law school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. One of the five Ivy League law schools, it offers four law degree programs, JD, LLM, MSLS and JSD, along with several dual-deg ...
in 1962. He was a
United States Naval Reserve Lieutenant (J.G.) from 1956 to 1962, serving on
active duty from 1956 to 1959.
He entered private practice in
Seattle,
Washington, working from 1962 to 1988 at the law firm Lane Powell Moss & Miller. He was a Judge pro tem of the Seattle Municipal Court from 1972 to 1980.
Zilly served as president of the Seattle-King County Bar Association in 1986-1987 and on multiple Washington State Bar Association committees, including as a hearing officer for its disciplinary board and as a bar examiner.
Federal judicial service
On February 16, 1988, Zilly was nominated by President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
to a seat on the
vacated by Judge
Walter T. McGovern
Walter Thomas McGovern (May 24, 1922 – July 8, 2021) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Education and career
Born in Seattle, Washington in May 1922, McGovern receiv ...
. A hearing on his nomination was held on March 28, 1988, and the Senate Judiciary Committee approved it on April 14, 1988. Zilly was confirmed by the
United States Senate on April 19, 1988, and received his commission the following day. He assumed
senior status on January 1, 2004.
In November 1988 Zilly ruled that the
US Fish and Wildlife Service had unlawfully failed to list the
northern spotted owl under the
Endangered Species Act
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...
.
In August 1997, Zilly certified a
class-action lawsuit
-
A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
by 64 prison inmates who alleged they had been subjected to
X-ray bombardment of their
testes during a
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
experiment conducted at the
Washington State Penitentiary at
Walla Walla during the 1960s.
In June 2002, Zilly ruled that the
University of Washington had not engaged in "
reverse discrimination
Reverse discrimination is a term for discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group. Groups may be defined in terms of ethnicity, gender identity, nationality, ...
" against white
law school
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
admission aspirants who had not been admitted to the class entering in fall 1994.
On January 28, 2017, Zilly ordered a temporary injunction preventing the removal from the
United States of two
Yemeni citizens under
Donald Trump's order to ban all immigration from seven predominantly Muslim nations.
In February 2019, Zilly ordered the
Department of Defense not to discriminate against U.S. armed forces members who are naturalized citizens by requiring them to undergo periodic security checks. The plaintiffs in the case were 17 individuals who had enlisted via the
Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program.
In September 2020, Zilly denied a government motion to dismiss a civil rights lawsuit filed by the family of Che Andre Taylor, who had been shot dead by
Seattle police officers in 2016.
Zilly presided over the first trial in the Western District of Washington ever conducted via the online platform Zoom during October 2020.
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zilly, Thomas Samuel
1935 births
Living people
Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington
United States district court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan
20th-century American judges
United States Navy officers
University of Michigan alumni
Lawyers from Detroit
Cornell University alumni
21st-century American judges