William Shaw Stickman IV (born 1979) is a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania The United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (in case citations, W.D. Pa.) is a federal trial court that sits in Pittsburgh, Erie, and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It is composed of ten judges as authorized by federal ...

Education

Stickman earned his

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 year ...

, '' summa cum laude'', in 2002 and his Juris Doctor in 2005 from

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( or ; Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit , image = Holy Gh ...

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

. He was a member of the ''Duquesne Law Review'' during law school."President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees, United States Attorney Nominee, and United States Marshal Nominees" White House, May 3, 2019

Legal career

From 2006 to 2007, Stickman served as a law clerk to Chief Justice

Ralph Cappy Ralph J. Cappy (August 25, 1943 – May 1, 2009) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1990 to 1998 and chief justice of the Court from 2003 to 2008. Prior to joining the state Supreme Court, Cappy was named to the Allegheny Co ...

of the

Pennsylvania Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Unified Judicial System. It also claims to be the oldest appellate court in the United States, a claim that is disputed by the Massachusetts Supreme Ju ...

. He was then hired as an associate with Del Sole Cavanaugh Stroyd LLC in 2007 and became a partner in 2013, where his practice focused on commercial litigation and

appellate In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...

matters. From 2011 to 2017, he served on the Pennsylvania Civil Procedural Rules Committee.

Federal judicial service

On May 3, 2019, 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 P ...

announced his intent to nominate Stickman to serve as a

for the

. On May 13, 2019, President Trump nominated Stickman to the seat vacated by Judge Joy Flowers Conti, who assumed

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

on December 6, 2018. On June 5, 2019, a hearing on his nomination was held 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 ...

. On June 27, 2019, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On July 30, 2019, the Senate voted 57–31 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. ' ...

on his nomination. On July 31, 2019, his nomination was confirmed by a 56–34 vote. He received his judicial commission on August 5, 2019.

Notable ruling

On September 14, 2020, Stickman ruled that the

stay at home order A stay-at-home order, safer-at-home order, movement control order (more common in Southeast Asia), or lockdown restrictions (in the United Kingdom) – also referred to by loose use of the terms (self-) quarantine, (self-) isolation, or lockdow ...

issued by

Pennsylvania Governor The governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the head of state and head of government of the U.S. state, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as commander-in-chief of the Commonwealth's military forces. The governor has a duty to enforc ...

Tom Wolf Thomas Westerman Wolf (born November 17, 1948) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 47th governor of Pennsylvania since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated Republican incumbent Tom Corbett in the 2014 gu ...

amidst the

coronavirus 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 identifie ...

was unconstitutional, violating the right to freedom of assembly guaranteed by the

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

. The Wolf administration filed an appeal for a

stay Stay may refer to: Places * Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US Law * Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment * Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tri ...

of the ruling. On October 1, 2020, Stickman's ruling was stayed by the

United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts for the following districts: * District of Delaware * District of New Jersey * East ...

, pending appeal.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stickman, William Shaw IV 1979 births Living people 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges Duquesne University alumni Duquesne University faculty Duquesne University School of Law alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania Lawyers from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania lawyers Pennsylvania Republicans United States district court judges appointed by Donald Trump