John M. Rogers
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John Marshall Rogers (born June 26, 1948 in
Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...
, New York) is a Senior United States circuit judge of the
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of ...
.


Background

Rogers received 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 years ...
degree from
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
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 ...
from the
University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a Public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of C ...
. Prior to his service as a federal judge, Rogers had been a law professor at the
University of Kentucky College of Law The University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law, also known as UK Rosenberg College of Law, is the law school of the University of Kentucky located in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded initially from a law program at Transylvania Universit ...
for nearly 25 years, where he remains a professor emeritus. Rogers also served in the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
. Rogers was an officer in the
Kentucky Army National Guard The Kentucky Army National Guard is a component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard. Nationwide, the Army National Guard comprises approximately one half of the US Army's available combat forces and approximately one t ...
from 1970 to 1998. Rogers currently resides in
Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...
.


Federal judicial service

Rogers was nominated to that court by 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 ...
on December 19, 2001 to fill a seat vacated by Judge Eugene Edward Siler, Jr. His nomination 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 November 14, 2002 by a
voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...
. Rogers was the second judge nominated to the Sixth Circuit by Bush and confirmed by the Senate. He received his commission on November 26, 2002. 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 May 15, 2018.


Notable opinions

Judge Rogers is one of the Sixth Circuit's most prolific judges. Over a five-year span, Judge Rogers tied with Judge
Jeffrey Sutton Jeffrey Stuart Sutton (born October 31, 1960) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the chief circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Early life and career Sutton received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history fr ...
as the author of the most opinions. On June 3, 2010, Judge Rogers (joined by Judge Siler) interpreted a union contract agreement between Detroit Diesel Corporation (owned by Daimler AG) and UAW Local 163 as altering the terms of DDC's obligations to its retirees. On that interpretation of their union contract, retirees (applies to the 1993–2004 retirees) now pay 66% of their pension towards their medical insurance. On March 17, 2006, Judge Rogers dissented from a decision of a Sixth Circuit majority panel in ''Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association''
442 F.3d 410
(6th Cir. 2006). Contrary to the majority, Judge Rogers concluded that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not prevent government-run athletic associations from limiting or prohibiting their members from recruiting student athletes. Judge Rogers reasoned as follows: "This is no more a case involving our nation's ideal of freedom of expression than a case involving a coach who is thrown out of a game for talking back to a referee." The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently granted a writ of ''certiorari'' to the Sixth Circuit in the same case and took the same position as Judge Rogers on the First Amendment issue. The Court held that " e antirecruiting rule strikes nowhere near the heart of the First Amendment." ''Tennessee Secondary Sch. Athletic Ass'n v. Brentwood Acad''.127 S. Ct. 2489, 2493
(2007). Judge Rogers authored a notable majority opinion in ''ACLU v. Bredesen''
441 F.3d 370
(6th Cir. 2006). Over the dissent of Circuit Judge Boyce Martin, Judge Rogers held that specialty license plates bearing a government-controlled message qualify as "government speech." Such license plates, as a result, do not create a "forum" for speech that is subject to First Amendment viewpoint-neutrality requirements. In ''Bredesen'', the Tennessee state legislature had authorized a "Choose Life" license plate but had rejected during legislative consideration a license plate with a conflicting message. The majority opinion authored by Judge Rogers held that "the medium in this case, a government-issued license plate that every reasonable person knows to be government-issued, . . . conveys a government message." The First Amendment, the opinion reasoned, does not require state governments to issue contradictory messages to remain viewpoint neutral. For instance, a government entity that gives out "Register and Vote" pins is not compelled by the Constitution to issue "Don't Vote" pins. In the years following ''Bredesen'', every other circuit court to address the issue disagreed with its interpretation of the First Amendment. The Fifth Circuit observed as follows in an opinion holding that specialty license plates are not government speech: "The Sixth Circuit's conclusion that specialty license plates are government speech makes it the sole outlier among our sister circuits." ''Texas Div., Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc. v. Vandergriff''
759 F.3d 388, 396
(5th Cir. 2014). The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently granted ''certiorari'' and reversed the Fifth Circuit's decision in
Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans ''Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans'', 576 U.S. 200 (2015), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that license plates are government speech and are consequently more easily regulated/subjected to c ...
. In an opinion that echoed the ''Bredesen'' ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that specialty license plates are government speech.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, John Marshall 1948 births 21st-century American judges Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Living people Lawyers from Rochester, New York Stanford University alumni United States court of appeals judges appointed by George W. Bush University of Michigan Law School alumni