William McCrary "Billy" Ray II (born May 3, 1963) 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 Northern District of Georgia The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (in case citations, N.D. Ga.) is a United States district court which serves the residents of forty-six counties. These are divided up into four divisions. Appeals from cases ...

. He was previously a judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Biography

Ray was born in

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...

in 1963. He received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

's Terry College of Business in 1985, ''magna cum laude'', his

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the Terry College of Business in 1986, and 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 ...

, ''cum laude'', from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1990. Upon graduation he joined the law firm of Andersen, Davidson & Tate, P.C. in Gwinnett County, Georgia. He ran for the

Georgia State Senate The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Legal provisions The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, with the lower house being the Georgia ...

in 1996 and spent six years representing the 48th District. He served on the Judiciary, Special Judiciary, Rules, Appropriations, Natural Resources, and Transportation Committees. On January 14, 2002, he took the oath of office to be a Superior Court Judge on the Gwinnett Judicial Circuit, a position in which he served for ten years. On July 30, 2012, Governor Nathan Deal appointed Ray to serve as the 76th Judge of the Court of Appeals of Georgia, where he succeeded

Keith R. Blackwell Keith Robert Blackwell (born July 4, 1975) is a former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Education Blackwell received his Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Georgia in 1996 and his Juris Doctor from t ...

, who was elevated to the state Supreme Court. He served in that capacity until his appointment as a federal judge.

Federal judicial service

On July 13, 2017, President

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 ...

nominated Ray to serve as a United States District Judge of the

, to the seat vacated by Judge Harold Lloyd Murphy, who 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 March 31, 2017. On September 20, 2017, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On October 19, 2017, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote. On January 3, 2018, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of 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 January 5, 2018, President

announced his intent to renominate Ray to a federal judgeship. On January 8, 2018, his renomination was sent to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. On January 18, 2018, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–10 vote. On October 11, 2018, his nomination was confirmed by a 54–41 vote. He received his judicial commission on October 25, 2018.

Notable cases

During the 2020 Georgia elections, to protect voting rights during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the secretary of state of Georgia Brad Raffensperger directed the mailing of absentee (mail-in) ballot applications to all of Georgia's 6.9 million active registered voters for the state's June 2020 primary. The Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials and other civil rights groups sued the Office of the Secretary of State of Georgia, and the

Gwinnett County Gwinnett County ( ) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It forms part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In 2020, the population was 957,062, making it the second-most populous county in Georgia (after Fulton C ...

elections board in Federal District Court, arguing that the mailing of mail-in ballot applications for the 2020 general election (which were only in English) should also have been sent in the

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...

, which has a significant Spanish-speaking population. Judge Ray dismissed the suit in October 2020, ruling that the plaintiffs lacked standing and the English-only mailings did not violate the

Voting Rights Act The suffrage, Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of Federal government of the United States, federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President of the United ...

.Judge dismisses request to send Spanish ballot applications
Associated Press (October 5, 2020).

Personal life

Ray has been married since 1989 to Dr. Kelle Chandler Ray, who is a clinical psychologist who practices in Lawrenceville, Georgia. They have three sons and reside in Norcross, Georgia. One of Ray's uncles was

Richard Ray Richard Belmont Ray (February 2, 1927 – May 29, 1999) was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 3rd congressional district from 1983 to 1993. Early life Ray was born in Fo ...

, a Democratic United States Congressman from Perry, Georgia and served as Senator Sam Nunn's Chief of Staff in Washington, D.C. for 12 years, and another uncle was Robert Ray of Fort Valley who served in the

Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. T ...

for 24 years.

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ray, William McCrary II 1963 births Living people 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges 21st-century American politicians Georgia Court of Appeals judges Georgia (U.S. state) state court judges Republican Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Lawyers from Macon, Georgia Superior court judges in the United States United States district court judges appointed by Donald Trump University of Georgia alumni University of Georgia School of Law alumni