Peter Keisler | |
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Attorney General of the United States Acting |
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In office September 18, 2007 – November 9, 2007 |
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President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Paul Clement (Acting) |
Succeeded by | Michael Mukasey |
Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division | |
In office July 1, 2003 – September 18, 2007 |
|
President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Robert McCallum |
Succeeded by | Gregory Katsas |
Associate Attorney General of the United States Acting |
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In office June 24, 2002 – July 1, 2003 |
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President | George W. Bush |
Preceded by | Jay Stephens |
Succeeded by | Robert McCallum |
Personal details | |
Born |
Hempstead, New York, U.S. |
October 13, 1960
Political party | Republican |
Alma mater | Yale University |
Religion | Judaism |
Peter Douglas Keisler (born October 13, 1960 in Hempstead, New York) is an American lawyer whose 2006 nomination by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit became embroiled in partisan controversy. He is a partner at the firm of Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., and used to be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. Upon the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, until November 9, 2007, he was also the Acting Attorney General of the United States.
A 1977 graduate from George W. Hewlett High School in Long Island, New York, Keisler went to Yale University both for undergraduate and law school. As an undergraduate, Keisler was the Chairman of the Party of the Right (Yale) and the Speaker of the Yale Political Union. He graduated magna cum laude from Yale College in 1981 and then entered Yale Law School. In 1982, he helped to co-found the Federalist Society, a conservative thinktank. He received his J.D. in 1985. After law school, Keisler clerked for Judge Robert Bork on the D.C. Circuit from 1985 to 1986. After this clerkship, he joined the Office of Legal Counsel under President Ronald Reagan. There, he worked on both the Supreme Court nominations of his former boss, Robert Bork, and the man who replaced Bork as a Supreme Court nominee, Justice Anthony Kennedy. After Kennedy was confirmed, he hired Keisler to be one of his four law clerks during his first year on the Court in 1988. One of his fellow clerks during that year was Miguel Estrada, another conservative nominee to the D.C. Circuit whose nomination was controversially filibustered by the Democrats in 2003.