Peter Welles Hall (November 9, 1948 – March 11, 2021) was a

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. Cou ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...

Biography

Born in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, Hall began his university education at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

and 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 years ...

degree before going on to earn a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in 1974. He earned 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 ...

Cornell Law School Cornell Law School is the law school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. One of the five Ivy League law schools, it offers four law degree programs, JD, LLM, MSLS and JSD, along with several dual-deg ...

in 1977. During his third year of law school, Hall served as President of the Cornell

Legal Aid Legal aid is the provision of assistance to people who are unable to afford legal representation and access to the court system. Legal aid is regarded as central in providing access to justice by ensuring equality before the law, the right to co ...

Clinic. After law school, Hall was a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

for Judge Albert Coffrin of the

United States District Court for the District of Vermont The United States District Court for the District of Vermont (in case citations, D. Vt.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the federal district of Vermont. The court has locations in Brattleboro, Burlington, and Rutland. The ...

from 1977 to 1978. Hall's legal career prior to joining the federal bench was divided between the

United States Attorney's Office United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

and private practice. He was an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...

for

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

from 1978 to 1986 before going into private practice. Following

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 ...

's election to the

Presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified by a ...

in 2001, Hall returned to the federal government, this time as the

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...

for the

District of Vermont The United States District Court for the District of Vermont (in case citations, D. Vt.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the federal district of Vermont. The court has locations in Brattleboro, Burlington, and Rutland. The ...

. He served in that position until his appointment to the Second Circuit.

Federal judicial service

President Bush nominated Hall to the Second Circuit on December 9, 2003, to fill the vacancy left by Judge Fred I. Parker. Supported by Vermont Senators

Jim Jeffords James Merrill Jeffords (May 11, 1934 – August 18, 2014) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sworn into the Senate in 1989, he served as a Republican until 2001, when he left the party to become ...

and

Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph Leahy (; born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who is the senior United States senator from Vermont and serves as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate. A member of the Democratic Party, ...

, Hall's nomination was uncontroversial, and he was confirmed on June 24, 2004, 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 ...

. He received his judicial commission on July 7, 2004. Hall took

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 March 4, 2021 and died of cancer one week later, aged 72.

Notable opinions

Hall wrote opinions on ''United States v. Wei Guang Wang'', an immigration case; ''United States v. Feliz'', an interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court's ''

Crawford v. Washington ''Crawford v. Washington'', 541 U.S. 36 (2004), is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that reformulated the standard for determining when the admission of hearsay statements in criminal cases is permitted under the Confrontation Claus ...

'' precedent;''Recent Case: Second Circuit Holds That Autopsy Reports Are Not Testimonial Evidence''
120 Harv. L. Rev. 1707 (2007). and ''United States v. Stewart'', affirming the 2004 perjury conviction of

Martha Stewart Martha Helen Stewart (, ; born August 3, 1941) is an American retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing pub ...

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Peter Welles 1948 births 2021 deaths 21st-century American judges Assistant United States Attorneys Cornell Law School alumni Hotchkiss School alumni Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Lawyers from Hartford, Connecticut United States Attorneys for the District of Vermont United States court of appeals judges appointed by George W. Bush University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni