Kermit Victor Lipez (born August 18, 1941) is an American lawyer who serves as a Senior

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Education and early career

Lipez 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 year ...

degree from Haverford College in 1963 and his

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...

from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

in 1967. Lipez also earned a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1990. Lipez formerly served as a staff attorney 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 Stat ...

Honor Program,

Civil Rights Division The U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is the institution within the federal government responsible for enforcing federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin. T ...

, from 1967 to 1968. He then served as a special assistant and legal counsel to

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

Governor

Kenneth M. Curtis Kenneth Merwin Curtis (born February 8, 1931) is an American attorney, Democratic politician, and diplomat. He was the Maine Secretary of State from 1965-1966, the Governor of Maine from 1966-1974, and the United States Ambassador to Canada f ...

from 1968 to 1971 and as a legislative aide to United States Senator Edmund Muskie from 1971 to 1972, until entering private practice in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, where he stayed until joining the Maine trial court in 1985.

State judicial service

Lipez's judicial career began with his service as a justice of the

Maine Superior Court The Maine Superior Court is the trial court of general jurisdiction in the Maine state court system. All state jury trials are held in the Superior Court. The court is located in each of Maine's 16 counties (with two locations in Aroostook Coun ...

, on which he served from 1985 to 1994. He was appointed to the

Maine Supreme Judicial Court The Maine Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the state of Maine's judicial system. It is composed of seven justices, who are appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Maine Senate. From 1820 until 1839, justices served lifetime a ...

in 1994, where he served until his

investiture Investiture (from the Latin preposition ''in'' and verb ''vestire'', "dress" from ''vestis'' "robe") is a formal installation or ceremony that a person undergoes, often related to membership in Christian religious institutes as well as Christian k ...

as a federal judge.

Federal judicial service

President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

nominated Lipez to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on October 20, 1997, to fill a seat vacated when Judge Conrad K. Cyr 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 ...

. Lipez was confirmed by the Senate on April 2, 1998, and received his commission on April 7, 1998. He assumed senior status on December 31, 2011, and was succeeded by Judge William J. Kayatta Jr. In August 2017, Lipez dissented when the ''

en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller p ...

'' circuit, in an opinion by Judge Kayatta, rejected a lawsuit seeking to give Puerto Ricans the right to vote.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipez, Kermit Victor 1941 births Haverford College alumni Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Living people Justices of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court Lawyers from Philadelphia Lawyers from Portland, Maine United States court of appeals judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Virginia School of Law alumni Yale Law School alumni 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges