T. S. Ellis, III

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Thomas Selby Ellis III (born May 15, 1940, Bogotá, Colombia), an American jurist. Ellis is currently serving as judge on the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

1 Education
2 Career
3 Record and Rulings
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Education

Ellis earned his B.S.E at Princeton University in 1961. He then earned a J.D. from Harvard University in 1969, and a Diploma in Law in 1970 from Oxford University.

[edit] Career

Ellis served in the United States Navy from 1961 to 1966.

After receiving his Diploma in Law at Oxford, Ellis entered private practice, where he remained until 1987. He was also a lecturer at The College of William and Mary, from 1981 to 1983. Ellis was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on July 1, 1987, to a seat vacated by Robert R. Merhige. He was confirmed by the Senate on August 5, 1987. Judge Ellis has announced he will take Senior Status in April 2007.

[edit] Record and Rulings

On January 20, 2006, Ellis sentenced former Defense Department employee Lawrence Franklin to 12 years and 7 months in prison and a $10,000 fine for passing classified information to an Israeli diplomat and AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby group.

On August 9, 2006, Ellis denied a motion to dismiss the case of two former AIPAC employees. Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman were charged under the Espionage Act with illegally receiving and transmitting classified information. Ellis wrote:

...both common sense and the relevant precedent point persuasively to the conclusion that the government can punish those outside of the government for the unauthorized receipt and deliberate retransmission of information relating to the national defense." (p. 53)[1].

This ruling is expected to have significant implications for freedom of the press and the First Amendment.

For full details, see Lawrence Franklin espionage scandal.

On Thursday, May 18, 2006 Ellis dismissed a lawsuit filed by Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen, against the CIA and three private companies allegedly involved with his kidnapping, transport, and torture in Kabul. Ellis explained his belief that a public trial would "present a grave risk of injury to national security"[2], though acknowledging that:

If El-Masri's allegations are true or essentially true, then all fair-minded people, including those who believe that state secrets must be protected, that this lawsuit cannot proceed, and that renditions are a necessary step to take in this war, must also agree that El-Masri has suffered injuries as a result of our country's mistake and deserves a remedy.[3]

Judge Ellis also presided in the first corporate whistle-blower case to emerge from Iraq, in which Robert Isakson and William Baldwin accused Custer Battles LLC of violating the ""False Claims Act"". In July 2005, in an opinion that has been widely misintrepreted by the media, Judge Ellis specifically ruled that Custer Battles' contracts with the Coalition Provisional Authority was susceptible to claims under the False Claims Act because the US government did in fact have authority of the money paid to Custer Battles. The judge further ruled that funds paid from the ""Development Fund for Iraq"" (DFI) were not susceptible to the False Claims Act, however the vast majority of Custer Battles contracts were not paid from DFI funds.[4] In August 2006, Judge Ellis ruled that the Relators in the case (Isakson and Baldwin) had presented evidence that Custer Battles may have created false claims, the Relators had failed to present any evidence that Custer Battles submitted those claims for payment or that the claims had ever been paid. This was a direct reversal of the jury's findings which found Custer Battles liable for the submission of $3 million of false claims.[5]

A second count of this case between Isakson and Custer Battles involved allegations of fraud and overbilling on Custer Battles' contract to secure Baghdad International Airport (BIAP). In a February 2007 opinion, Judge Ellis ruled that there was no evidence of any fraud or wrongdoing on the part of Custer Battles, and in fact Custer Battles had completed its contract and received very high performance marks. On February 7, 2007 Judge Ellis dismissed all counts of fraud against Custer Battles.[6]