Michael J. McShane (born 1961) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as 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 District of Oregon The United States District Court for the District of Oregon (in case citations, D. Ore. or D. Or.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the state of Oregon. It was created in 1859 when the state was admitted to the Union ...

. He previously served as a state court judge on the Oregon

Multnomah County Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Th ...

Circuit Court from 2001 to 2013.

Early life, education and career

McShane was born in 1961 in

Pittsburgh 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 ...

, in a conservative

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

family. He grew up in

Kennewick, Washington Kennewick () is a city in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located along the southwest bank of the Columbia River, just southeast of the confluence of the Columbia and Yakima rivers and across from the confluence of the ...

, where he attended high school. McShane graduated from

Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) () is a private Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Founded in 1887 by Joseph Cataldo, an Italian-born priest and Jesuit missionary, the ...

in 1983 with 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 '' magna cum laude''. He then joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and spent two years in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, as a corrections counselor. He left the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in 1985 to attend

Lewis & Clark Law School The Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College (also known as Lewis & Clark Law School), is an American Bar Association-approved private law school in Portland, Oregon. The law school received ABA approval in 1970 and joined the As ...

, graduating in 1988 with a Juris Doctor ''cum laude''.Senate Judiciary Committee Questionnaire
/ref> He had worked for the Clark County District Attorney's office during law school but, on graduating, McShane joined the Office of the Metropolitan Public Defender 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 worked from 1988 to 1997.

Judicial service

State judicial service

He served as a full-time Judge Pro Tempore on the

Circuit Court from 1997 to 2001 and as a Judge on the same court from 2001 to 2013. He handled civil, criminal and family court cases. He received the Oregon State Bar President's Public Service Award in 2012.

Federal judicial service

On September 19, 2012, 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 ...

nominated McShane to serve as a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, to the seat vacated by Judge Michael R. Hogan 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 September 24, 2011. On January 2, 2013, his nomination was returned to the President, due to the sine die adjournment of the Senate. On January 3, 2013, he was renominated to the same office. His nomination was reported by 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 March 7, 2013, by

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 ...

. The Senate confirmed his nomination on May 20, 2013, by

. He received his commission on May 30, 2013.

Same-sex marriage ruling

On May 19, 2014, McShane struck down Oregon's same-sex marriage ban in '' Geiger v. Kitzhaber''. He ordered that the state immediately issue licenses to same-sex couples. The State of Oregon did not appeal (

Oregon Attorney General The Oregon Attorney General is a statutory office within the executive branch of the state of Oregon, and serves as the chief legal officer of the state, heading its Department of Justice with its six operating divisions. The attorney general is ch ...

Ellen Rosenblum Ellen F. Rosenblum (born January 6, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Oregon Attorney General since 2012. She is the first female state attorney general in Oregon's history, and previously was a judge on the Oreg ...

declined to defend the state's ban on same-sex marriage);

same-sex marriage in Oregon Same-sex marriage in Oregon has been legally recognized since May 19, 2014, when Judge Michael J. McShane of the U.S. District Court for the District Court of Oregon ruled in '' Geiger v. Kitzhaber'' that Oregon's 2004 state constitutional amend ...

was legalized as a result.

Personal

McShane is

openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

, and he is the first openly gay federal judge in Oregon. His partner is Gregory Ford, and they have a son. McShane sits on the boards of The Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics at the University of Oregon and the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest. He previously sat on the board of St. Andrew Nativity School, an inner city middle school in Portland for disadvantaged youth. He taught criminal practice and trial advocacy at Lewis & Clark Law School and is a frequent lecturer at law schools and bar associations in Oregon.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McShane, Michael Jerome 1961 births Living people 21st-century American judges American gay men Gonzaga University alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon Lawyers from Pittsburgh Lewis & Clark Law School alumni LGBT judges LGBT lawyers LGBT people from Pennsylvania LGBT people from Oregon LGBT appointed officials in the United States Oregon state court judges People from Kennewick, Washington Public defenders United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama