Arthur Raymond Randolph

Arthur Raymond Randolph is a senior United States circuit judge on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Appointed to the bench by President George H. W. Bush in 1990, he served as an active‑service judge until assuming senior status on his birthday in 2008, after which he continued to hear cases. Over a career that spans private practice, government service, and academia, Judge Randolph has participated in high‑profile litigation before the Supreme Court and authored opinions on matters ranging from securities regulation to the legal status of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.

Early life and legal career

Arthur Raymond Randolph was born on November 1, 1943, in Riverside Township, New Jersey. He spent his childhood in the neighboring communities of Palmyra and the Glendora section of Gloucester Township. In 1961 he graduated from Triton Regional High School as a member of its inaugural graduating class.

Pursuing higher education, Randolph attended Drexel University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in economics and engineering in 1966. While at Drexel he was active in student leadership, serving as president of the debate society, vice‑president of the Student Senate, and competing on the varsity wrestling team. To finance his studies he worked concurrently as an assembly line employee for General Motors.

Randolph continued his academic training at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, graduating summa cum laude with a Juris Doctor in 1969 after having ranked first in his class each year. During law school he held the position of managing editor of the university’s law review.

Following graduation, Randolph clerked for Judge Henry Friendly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1969 to 1970. He then entered a varied legal career that moved between government service, private practice, and teaching. From 1970 to 1973 he served as an Assistant to the United States Solicitor General, where his responsibilities included briefing and arguing cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

In 1973 Randolph joined the Washington‑based firm Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin (later merged into Baker Botts). While there he represented government officials implicated in the Watergate investigations, including former Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and former President Richard Nixon after Nixon left office. He returned to the Department of Justice in 1975 as Deputy United States Solicitor General, working under Solicitor General Robert H. Bork until 1977.

Simultaneously with his government work, Randolph held an adjunct professorship at Georgetown University Law Center from 1974 through 1978, teaching courses on civil procedure and injunctions. In 1979 he was appointed Special Counsel to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the United States House of Representatives, a role he fulfilled until 1980.

After his tenure in public service, Randolph entered private practice again, becoming a partner at Pepper Hamilton (now Troutman Pepper). During this period he also served as Special Assistant Attorney General for several states—New Mexico (1985‑1990), Utah (1986‑1990) and Montana (1983‑1990)—and contributed to the Advisory Panel of the Federal Courts Study Committee. Between 1971 and his judicial appointment in 1990, Randolph argued before the Supreme Court on twenty‑five occasions.

Federal appellate service

On May 8, 1990 President George H. W. Bush nominated Randolph to fill a vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit created by the retirement of Judge Spottswood William Robinson III. The Senate confirmed his appointment on July 13, 1990, and he received his commission three days later. He served as an active‑service circuit judge from that time until November 1, 2008, when he assumed senior status on the anniversary of his birth. In senior status he has continued to sit on panels and issue opinions.

During his tenure on the bench, Judge Randolph contributed to the administration of judicial ethics. From 1993 through 1995 he was a member of the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and from 1995 until 1998 he chaired that committee, overseeing the development and interpretation of ethical standards for federal judges.

Public reports have noted that Judge Randolph accepted fully‑paid fishing trips to Alaska from private individuals who had business before the federal courts. The reports indicate that these trips were not disclosed in accordance with standard reporting requirements, and that the judge asserted reliance on court staff guidance regarding the need for disclosure.

Jurisprudence and legacy

Judge Randolph’s judicial output includes opinions on a range of substantive issues. In 2006 he authored an opinion holding that a Securities and Exchange Commission rule requiring hedge funds to treat natural persons as clients was arbitrary and capricious, thereby invalidating the regulation under administrative law principles.

His work in the area of foreign sovereign immunity is reflected in a partial dissent issued in June 2017 when the D.C. Circuit considered whether the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act barred survivors of Holocaust victims from suing to recover art taken by Nazi plunderers. Randolph’s dissent expressed disagreement with the majority’s application of the statute.

Judge Randolph has been particularly influential in cases involving the legal status of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. In *Al Odah v. United States*, he wrote for a unanimous panel that non‑citizen detainees did not possess constitutional rights, a position later reversed by the Supreme Court in *Rasul v. Bush*. He subsequently authored the majority opinion in *Hamdan v. Rumsfeld*, holding that the executive branch possessed authority to convene military commissions for “enemy combatants” and that such commissions did not violate the Geneva Conventions; this decision was also overturned by the Supreme Court, prompting congressional enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

In the follow‑up case known as *Boumediene v. Bush*, Judge Randolph again wrote for the majority, upholding the Military Commissions Act’s limitation on federal courts’ habeas‑corpus jurisdiction over alien detainees. The Supreme Court ultimately granted certiorari and reversed that judgment, reshaping the legal landscape governing detainee rights.

Across his career, Judge Randolph has been recognized for his involvement in high‑stakes administrative and national‑security litigation, as well as for his contributions to judicial ethics administration. His opinions continue to be cited in debates over the scope of executive power, the application of administrative law standards, and the procedural rights of individuals subject to federal authority. As a senior judge, he remains an active participant in the jurisprudential development of the District of Columbia Circuit, one of the nation’s most influential appellate courts.