Thomas Samuel Zilly (born January 1, 1935) is a Senior United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the Western District of Washington The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (in case citations, W.D. Wash.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of the state of Washington: Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Grays H ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

Education and career

Born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, Zilly 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 years ...

degree from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

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 The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Sele ...

Lieutenant (J.G.) from 1956 to 1962, serving on active duty from 1956 to 1959. He entered private practice in

, 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 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 April 19, 1988, and received his commission the following day. He assumed

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

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 An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

bombardment of their

testes A testicle or testis (plural testes) is the male reproductive gland or gonad in all bilaterians, including humans. It is homologous to the female ovary. The functions of the testes are to produce both sperm and androgens, primarily testoster ...

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 Walla Walla can refer to: * Walla Walla people, a Native American tribe after which the county and city of Walla Walla, Washington, are named * Place of many rocks in the Australian Aboriginal Wiradjuri language, the origin of the name of the tow ...

during the 1960s. In June 2002, Zilly ruled that the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

of two Yemeni citizens under

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

's order to ban all immigration from seven predominantly Muslim nations. In February 2019, Zilly ordered the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

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

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