Barrington Daniels Parker, Jr.

Barrington Daniels Parker, Jr. (born August 21, 1944 in Washington, D.C.) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Background

Prior to his elevation to the Second Circuit, Parker had been a U.S. District Judge for seven years for the Southern District of New York. President Bill Clinton appointed him to that position on September 15, 1994. Before that, Parker had been in private practice as an attorney in New York City for 24 years, from 1970 to 1994. His first legal job was as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr. on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1969-1970. Parker's father, Barrington Daniels Parker, Sr., was a judge on that court as well, from 1969 to 1993. He was also a partner at Parker Auspitz Neesemann & Delehanty and Morrison & Foerster and an associate at Sullivan and Cromwell.

Parker studied at Yale, where he received a B.A. in 1965. He received an LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1969. He serves on the Yale Corporation, the university's board of trustees. He also was a member of St. Elmo, a secret society at Yale.

Nomination and confirmation

Parker was initially nominated to that court by President George W. Bush on May 9, 2001 to fill a seat vacated by Judge Ralph K. Winter. However, the then Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate returned Parker's nomination just a few months later without considering it. Bush then renominated Parker, along with many other previously returned nominees, on September 4, 2001. This time, the Senate confirmed Parker's nomination a little over a month later, on October 11, 2001, by a vote of 100-0. Parker was the first judge Bush appointed to the Second Circuit.

The fact that Parker had earlier been appointed to the U.S. District Court by President Bill Clinton in 1994 may explain the speed with which the then Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed Parker's promotion to the Second Circuit. Parker is one of only a few judges to be appointed to the federal bench by a President and then later promoted by a President from an opposing political party. Third Circuit Judge Maryanne Trump Barry is another example, as are fellow Second Circuit Judge Jon O. Newman and former Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor (who is now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States), the late Second Circuit Judge Fred I. Parker, Seventh Circuit Judge Ann Claire Williams, and Eleventh Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus.

Sources

• Barrington Daniels Parker, Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.