Clay D. Land
| Clay Daniel Land | |
|---|---|
| Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia | |
|
Assumed office October 1, 2014 |
|
| Preceded by | C. Ashley Royal |
| Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia | |
|
Assumed office December 21, 2001 |
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| Appointed by | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | J. Robert Elliot |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Clay Daniel Land 1960 (age 56–57) Shreveport, Louisiana |
| Education |
University of Georgia B.B.A. University of Georgia Law School J.D. |
Clay Daniel Land (born 1960) is the Chief United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Land received a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Georgia in 1982 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia Law School in 1985. He was in private practice in Columbus, Georgia, from 1985 to 2001.
On September 21, 2001, President George W. Bush nominated Land to a seat on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia vacated by J. Robert Elliot. Land was confirmed by the United States Senate on December 13, 2001, and received his commission on December 21, 2001. He has served as Chief Judge since October 1, 2014.
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 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, told the news site Talking Points Memo that she felt Land's refusal to hear her case was an act of treason. 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" by Obama. Land rejected the motion as frivolous and ordered her to show cause why she should not be fined $10,000 for abuse of judicial process.
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