George J. Hazel

George Jarrod Hazel (born March 19, 1975) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland and former Chief Deputy State's Attorney for Baltimore, Maryland.

George J. Hazel
Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
Assumed office
May 2, 2014
Appointed byBarack Obama
Preceded byAlexander Williams, Jr.
Personal details
Born (1975-03-19) March 19, 1975
New York City, New York
EducationMorehouse College (B.A.)
Georgetown University Law Center (J.D.)

Biography

Born in New York City, Hazel received a Bachelor of Arts cum laude, in 1996, from Morehouse College, a historically black men's college in Atlanta, Georgia.[1] He received a Juris Doctor in 1999 from Georgetown University Law Center. He began his legal career as an associate at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, in Washington, D.C., from 1999 to 2004. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, from 2005 to 2008 and in the District of Maryland, from 2008 to 2010. From 2011 until his confirmation as a federal judge in 2014, he served as Chief Deputy State's Attorney for Baltimore, Maryland.[2][3]

Federal judicial service

On September 25, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Hazel to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, to the seat vacated by Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., who took senior status on May 8, 2013.[2] On January 16, 2014, his nomination was reported out of committee.[4] On April 29, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on Hazel's nomination. On Thursday May 1, 2014, the Senate voted 55–42 to invoke cloture on Hazel's nomination. Later that same day, the Senate voted 95–0 to confirm Hazel to the seat.[5] He received his judicial commission on May 2, 2014.[3] Upon his swearing in, Hazel was told he was the youngest United States district judge.[6]

In April 2019, Hazel ruled against Maryland plaintiffs in a case challenging the Commerce Department's intent to include a question about citizenship on census forms. With two other judges, he had found that the Trump administration had violated administrative law with its intent to add the question to 2020 United States Census. However in formulating that decision, Hazel did not find sufficient evidence to support claims that the government had intentionally moved to include the question specifically in order to discriminate against immigrants and non-white minorities by its inclusion, nor did he agree that evidence before the court proved that it was an element of a conspiracy violate the constitutional rights of noncitizens. The panel's decision was appealed, but plaintiffs had subsequently uncovered more direct evidence of the existence of such a strategy found on a computer belonging to and in the files of Thomas Hofeller, a recently deceased Republican consultant. Given that, they asked Hazel to reconsider his earlier ruling. On June 18, Hazel acknowledged that the request to reopen the issue had merit, saying their evidence "raises a substantial issue" in the case, that inclusion would favor Republicans and whites over minorities.[7][8] This case is concurrent to Department of Commerce v. New York.[9]

References
  1. "List of HBCUs – White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities". 2007-08-16. Archived from the original on 2007-12-23. Retrieved 2019-06-20.
  2. "President Obama Nominates Two to Serve on the United States District Courts". whitehouse.gov. Office of the Press Secretary. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  3. "Hazel, George Jarrod – Federal Judicial Center". www.fjc.gov.
  4. "Executive Business Meeting". United States Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2014.
  5. "U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 113th Congress – 2nd Session". Vote Summary: Vote Number 128. United States Senate.
  6. Duncan, Ian (15 May 2014). "New generation of federal judges seated". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  7. Federal judge says census citizenship question merits more consideration in light of new evidence, Washington Post, Tara Bahrampour, June 19, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  8. Despite Trump administration denials, new evidence suggests census citizenship question was crafted to benefit white Republicans Washington Post, Tara Bahrampour and Robert Barnes, May 30, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  9. Department of Commerce v. New York, No. 18-966, 588 U.S. ___ (2019).
Legal offices
Preceded by
Alexander Williams, Jr.		 Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland
2014–present		 Incumbent
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