Norman Bay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Norman C. Bay (born 1960 in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois) is a former United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico. Bay was the first Chinese-American United States Attorney.
Although Bay was exceptionally qualified to be the U.S. Attorney, there were suggestions that the Clinton Administration appointed Bay because of his Chinese ethnicity in order to deflect mounting criticism that the Administration's prosecution of Wen Ho Lee was racially motivated. Attorney General of the United States Janet Reno named Bay as the interim United States Attorney in New Mexico on March 8, 2000. At the time Bay was named interim U.S. Attorney, he was taking over from an Acting U.S. Attorney (Bob Gorence). President Bill Clinton nominated Bay to the Senate on May 25, 2000, and the Senate confirmed Bay on September 8, 2000.
As United States Attorney in New Mexico, Bay inherited the Wen Ho Lee case, which had been charged before Bay took office. This controversial case involved a Chinese-American scientist accused of mishandling nuclear secrets. Five months after Bay became interim U.S. Attorney (and seven days after he was confirmed by the Senate), the case was resolved through a plea agreement in August 2000. At Lee’s sentencing, Judge James Parker criticized top government officials, but Judge Parker went out of his way to exempt Bay, whom he warmly praised as an “outstanding member[] of the Bar” for whom he had the “highest regard.”
Although Bay's appointment was for four years, he resigned upon the election of George W. Bush in 2002. (The timing of Bay's resignation was not unsual. It is customary for all policymaking Executive Branch officials to resign their respective offices at the end of an Administration, regardless of the official duration of their appointment.)
In the spring of 2002, Bay began teaching at the University of New Mexico School of Law. He is presently an Associate Professor of Law, and his subjects include Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, International Criminal Law, and Evidence. His scholarship interests have included National Security Law and Criminal Procedure, and he has written in both of those areas.[1]
Bay was raised in New Mexico. He attended Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School. After law school, he clerked for Judge Otto R. Skopil, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He then worked in the Legal Adviser’s Office of the U.S. State Department. From 1989 to 2000, he was a federal prosecutor (an Assistant U.S. Attorney) in the District of Columbia and in New Mexico. Before becoming the United States Attorney, he was a supervisor of the Violent Crime Section in New Mexico. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he tried cases in D.C. Superior Court, and U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia and New Mexico. He also has extensive experience in appellate advocacy and has argued a number of cases in the D.C. Court of Appeals, the D.C. Circuit, and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals that have resulted in reported opinions.[1]
