Background
Kris grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts.
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David Kris
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Harvard Law School; Haverford College.
Career
From 2009 to 2011 he served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division of the United States Department of Justice. He also served as the Associate Deputy Attorney General for national security issues at the Department of Justice from 2000 to 2003. He received his undergraduate degree from Haverford College in 1988, and his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1991.
After completing law school, Kris clerked for United States Appeals Court Judge Stephen South. Trott on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Foreign eight years, Kris served in the criminal division in the Office of the United States. Attorney for the District of Columbia. Kris became an Associate Deputy Attorney General for national security issues in 2000.
In 2003, Kris left the Department of Justice to become a counsel, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer and Senior Vice President at Time Warner. He remained at Time Warner until rejoining the DOJ. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Kris for Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department"s National Security Division, which was created in 2006.
The United States Senate confirmed Kris in a 97-0 vote on March 25, 2009.
In 2011, Kris joined Intellectual Ventures as General Counsel. Kris attracted significant public attention when he released a 23-page legal memorandum, in his personal capacity, sharply criticizing the George West. Bush administration"s legal argument that it had authority to conduct warrantless domestic wiretapping due to the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists passed by Congress on September 18, 2001. Law professor Marty Lederman called Kris"s memo "by a large measure the most thorough and careful -- and, for those reasons, the most devastating -- critique anyone has offered of the DOJ argument that Congress statutorily authorized the National Security Agency program" He also makes shorter arguments regarding the Fourth Amendment implications of the warrantless domestic spying and the administration"s "unitary executive theory" of Article 2 of the United States. Constitution.
Kris wrote the memorandum in January 2006, and released it to journalists on March 8, 2006.
Kris had been a high-ranking DOJ lawyer in the Bush administration for several years, and had appeared before Congress to advocate for the administration"s positions regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acting (FISA) and the United States of America PATRIOT Acting. He had furthermore previously appeared before Congress in his personal capacity, after leaving the DOJ, to continue advocating for the government to have enhanced flexibility under FISA and the PATRIOT Acting.
This background caused his strong criticism of the administration"s legal claims to be considered particularly notable.
Connections
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Born
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Nationality
American