Background
McKeague, David William was born on November 5, 1946 in Pittsburgh. Son of Herbert William and Phyllis McKeague.
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David William McKeague
Edit ProfileEducation
Bachelor of Business Administration, University of Michigan, 1968; Juris Doctor, University of Michigan, 1971.
Career
McKeague received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan in 1968, and his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1971. He began his career in private practice in Lansing, Michigan until 1992, when President George Heriot-Watt University Bush appointed him to a federal district judgeship on the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan. He remained on that bench until his confirmation to the Sixth Circuit.
On November 8, 2001, McKeague was nominated by President George West. Bush to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated by the Judge Richard Fred Suhrheinrich, who had taken senior status the previous summer.
On the same day, Bush also nominated Henry Saad and Susan Bieke Neilson to Michigan seats on the Sixth Circuit. On June 26, 2002, Bush nominated Richard Allen Griffin to a fourth Michigan seat on the Sixth Circuit.
During the Democrat-controlled 107th Congress, all four nominations were stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee by then chairman, Senator Patrick Leahy, Doctorate-Vermont. In the 2002 midterm congressional elections, the Republicans regained control of the Senate. During the new 108th Congress, Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the new Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee began to process the previously blocked four nominees.
In March 2003, Michigan"s two Democratic senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow announced that they would blue-slip all Bush judicial nominees from Michigan because Bush refused to renominate Helene White and Kathleen McCree Lewis, two Michigan nominees to the Sixth Circuit whose nominations the Senate Republicans had refused to process during President Bill Clinton"s second term.
Helene White at the time was married to Levin"s cousin. Contrary to Levin"s and Stabenow"s wishes, Hatch gave Saad, McKeague and Griffin committee hearings, and passed the three nominees out of committee. Furious, Levin and Stabenow convinced their caucus to filibuster the three in order to prevent them from having confirmation votes.
The Senate Republicans increased their numbers in the 109th Congress.
Tensions between the Republicans and Democrats rose dramatically as the Republicans sought to break the filibusters of ten Bush court of appeals nominees (including Saad, McKeague and Griffin) by using the nuclear option. In order to defuse the explosive situation concerning the use of the nuclear option and Democrats" obstruction of President Bush"s judicial nominations, fourteen moderate Republican and Democratic senators called the Gang of 14 joined together to forge an agreement to guarantee certain filibustered nominations up or down votes.
Henry Saad and William Myers, however, were expressly excluded from the guarantee. Following the 2005 Gang of 14 compromise, McKeague was given a vote along with fellow Sixth Circuit nominee Richard Allen Griffin.
Both Levin and Stabenow ultimately voted in favor of McKeague on June 9, 2005 when he was confirmed by the full United States. Senate 96-0.
McKeague was the fifth judge nominated to the Sixth Circuit by Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate.
Achievements
Membership
National committee University of Michigan Law School Fund, 1980-1992. General counsel Michigan Republican Committee, 1989-1992. Advisory county Wharton Center, Michigan State University, since 1996.
Member FBA (board directors Western Michigan chapter since 1991), Michigan Bar Association, Ingham County Bar Association, Country Club Lansing (Board of Governors 1988-1992, 96-), The Federalist Society for Law and Public Studies (lawyers division Michigan chapter since 1996).
Connections
Married Nancy L. Palmer, May 20, 1989. Children: Mike, Melissa, Sarah, Laura, Elizabeth, Adam.
