Clay Daniel Land (born March 24, 1960) 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 Middle District of Georgia The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia (in case citations, M.D. Ga.) is a United States district court which serves the residents of seventy counties from five divisions from its headquarters in Macon, Georgia. Appeals from c ...

Education and law practice

Born in Shreveport,

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, Land received a

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

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 ...

in 1982 and a Juris Doctor from the

University of Georgia Law School The University of Georgia School of Law (Georgia Law) is the law school of the University of Georgia, a public research university in Athens, Georgia. It was founded in 1859, making it among the oldest American university law schools in continuou ...

in 1985. He was in private practice in Columbus,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, from 1985 to 2001.

Political career

Land served as a member of the

Columbus City Council The Columbus City Council is the lawmaking body of Columbus, Ohio. It has 7 members who are elected at-large. It meets in the City Council Chambers located on the second floor of Columbus City Hall. Starting in the 2023 election, City Council ...

from 1993 to 1994. In 1994 he was elected to 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 Ho ...

as a Republican. He served three terms (6 years) representing District 16, the same seat previously held by his cousin Ted. J. Land from 1979 to 1991.

District court service

On September 21, 2001, President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

nominated Land to a seat on the

vacated by J. Robert Elliott. Land 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 December 13, 2001, and received his commission on December 21, 2001. He served as

Chief Judge A chief judge (also known as presiding judge, president judge or principal judge) is the highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. According to the Federal judiciary of the United States, th ...

from October 1, 2014 to June 30, 2020.

Notable case

Land was in the spotlight in late 2009 when he tried the case '' Rhodes v. Macdonald'', in which Army physician Connie Rhodes attempted to secure a restraining order against her being deployed to Iraq on the argument that President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

was not born in the United States and was ineligible to serve as President. Land rejected the argument as frivolous. Within hours of Land's decision, the physician's attorney,

Orly Taitz Orly Taitz ( he, אורלי טייץ; born August 30, 1960) is an Israeli-American political conspiracy theorist and political candidate. A dentist, lawyer, and former real estate agent, Taitz was a figure in the "birther" movement, which prom ...

, told the news site

Talking Points Memo ''Talking Points Memo'' (''TPM'') is a liberal political news and opinion website created and run by Josh Marshall that debuted on November 12, 2000. The name is a reference to the memo (short list) consisting of the issues (points) discussed b ...

that she felt Land's refusal to hear her case was an act of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

. Two days later, she filed a motion to stay Rhodes' deployment pending rehearing of the dismissal order. She repeated her treason allegations against Land and made several other intemperate statements, including claims that Land was aiding and abetting purported aspirations of "

dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship a ...

" by Obama. Land rejected the motion as frivolous and ordered her to

show cause Show or The Show may refer to: Competition, event, or artistic production * Agricultural show, associated with agriculture and animal husbandry * Animal show, a judged event in the hobby of animal fancy ** Cat show ** Dog show ** Horse show ** ...

why she should not be fined $10,000 for abuse of judicial process. After Rhodes asked for Taitz to be removed as her attorney, on October 13, 2009, Judge Land issued a scathing 40-page ruling sanctioning Taitz and imposed a monetary penalty of $20,000 under Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Upon learning of Land's ruling, Taitz told Talking Points Memo that she would not pay the fine, calling it "intimidation". Judge Land ruled to continue the incarceration of ICE detainees at the detention center in Irwin County, Georgia during the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

crisis. During the more than three month period, from the original filing to the day of the hearing, one inmate in a nearby facility had died from the disease. In his summation he indicated that he had "not heard anything terribly persuasive to change my mind."

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Land, Clay Daniel 1960 births Living people Republican Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators Georgia (U.S. state) city council members Judges of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush 21st-century American judges Politicians from Shreveport, Louisiana People from Columbus, Georgia University of Georgia alumni University of Georgia School of Law alumni Georgia (U.S. state) lawyers