who was the first female attorney general appointed by bill clinton

Who was the first female Attorney General?

Jan 29, 2018 · Janet Reno broke new ground in 1993 as the first woman to serve as U.S. Attorney General, serving under President Bill Clinton.

Why did Bill Clinton choose a woman for Attorney General?

Nov 08, 2016 · Janet Reno, who has died aged 78, was the first woman attorney general of the US. Appointed by Bill Clinton in 1991, she served throughout his two terms of office, the second longest tenure in ...

Who was the Attorney General under Clinton?

Reno was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on March 11, 1993, and thus became the first female Attorney General. Reno remained Attorney General through both of Clinton's terms as president. Wood remained a federal judge. While the ramifications of Nannygate persisted, Baird herself quickly returned to public obscurity.

Who was the first female state attorney in Florida?

Dec 25, 1992 · — Completing the most diverse Cabinet in history, President-elect Bill Clinton appointed the first woman attorney general, corporate lawyer Zoe Baird, who will become the most senior department ...

See more

Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York under both Presidents Bill Clinton (1999–2001) and Obama (2010–2015).

Who was the first female US Attorney General?

On March 12, 1993, Ms. Reno became the first woman and 78th attorney general. She went on to become the longest serving attorney general in the 20th century.Mar 16, 2021

Which president appointed the first female attorney general?

Janet Reno became the first female attorney general when she was nominated to that position by President Clinton. Reno served as attorney general throughout Clinton's eight years in office, from 1993 to 2001.

When was the first woman US attorney general appointed?

On March 11, 1993, Janet Reno was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the first woman Attorney General of the United States. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton and served until the end of his second term in 2001.Jul 11, 2018

Who appointed Loretta Lynch?

Nomination. On November 8, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Lynch for the position of U.S. Attorney General, to succeed Eric Holder, who had previously announced his resignation, pending confirmation of his replacement.

Who was Obama's last attorney general?

Eric HolderOfficial portrait, 200982nd United States Attorney GeneralIn office February 3, 2009 – April 27, 2015PresidentBarack Obama31 more rows

Did Janet Reno have Parkinson's?

Attorney General Janet Reno has Parkinson disease, but she never stuffs her hands in her pockets to hide her tremors. Instead she's completely upfront about the neurological disease, which was diagnosed in 1995.

Who was Attorney General during Ruby Ridge?

Following the siege and shootings at Ruby Ridge, that left a federal officer and a suspect's wife and son dead, Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a Justice Department task force to investigate the tragic events of August 1992.

What is the heritage of Janet Reno?

Her father, a Danish immigrant, was a police reporter for the Miami Herald, and her mother was an investigative reporter for the Miami News.

Why is Janet Reno famous?

Janet Reno broke new ground in 1993 as the first woman to serve as U.S. Attorney General, serving under President Bill Clinton.Jan 29, 2018

Who were Obama's cabinet members?

Cabinet officials on January 20, 2017The Obama CabinetOfficeNameSecretary of AgricultureTom VilsackSecretary of CommerceGary LockeJohn Bryson107 more rows

Who was the last U.S. Attorney General?

List of U.S. attorneys generalAttorney GeneralYears of serviceMerrick Garland2021-PresentLoretta Lynch2015-2017Eric Holder2009-2015Michael B. Mukasey2007-200982 more rows

Who is Eric Holder's wife?

Sharon MaloneEric H. Holder, Jr. / Wife (m. 1990)

What did Reno do in her career?

From 1963 to 1971 Reno worked as an attorney for two Miami law firms. In 1971, she joined the staff of the Judiciary Committee of the Florida House of Representatives. The following year, Reno unsuccessfully ran for a seat in Florida's state house. In 1973, she worked on a project to revise the state's system of rules and regulations for criminal procedures. Later in the same year, she accepted a position with the Dade County State Attorney's Office led by Richard Gerstein. Shortly after joining the office, Gerstein made Reno his chief assistant. Reno did not try any cases during her time working for Gerstein. She worked for the Judiciary Circuit, and left the state attorney's office in 1976 to become a partner in a private law firm, Steel, Hector & Davis. Gerstein decided to retire in 1977, creating a vacancy with Florida governor Reubin Askew to appoint a successor. Reno was one of two candidates Gerstein recommended to replace him.

How many capital punishment convictions did Reno have?

Although Reno personally opposed the death penalty, her office secured 80 capital punishment convictions during her tenure. None of these were executed during her tenure, but five were later executed.

Where was Janet Reno born?

Reno was born in Miami, Florida. Reno's mother, Jane Wallace (née Wood), wrote a weekly home improvement column for The Miami News under a male pseudonym and later became an investigative reporter for the paper. Janet's father, Henry Olaf Reno (né Rasmussen), was an emigrant from Denmark and a reporter for the Miami Herald for 43 years. Janet Reno had three younger siblings: Mark; writer Robert Reno; and Maggy Hurchalla. In 1943, the Reno family moved to a house in rural South Miami; it came with enough land to keep farm animals, including cows, chicken, ducks, goats, and turkeys. Reno helped her parents churn butter, which the family sold to make ends meet.

Who is Janet Reno?

Janet Reno. Not to be confused with Ginette Reno. Janet Wood Reno (July 21, 1938 – November 7, 2016) was an American lawyer who served as the Attorney General of the United States from 1993 until 2001. President Bill Clinton nominated Reno on February 11, 1993, and the Senate confirmed her the following month.

Did Reno have children?

Reno never married and did not have children. She took Spanish lessons during her time as state attorney. She remained active after her diagnosis of Parkinson's disease in 1995; she learned inline skating in 1996. After her mother's death in 1992, Reno inherited her childhood home. In response to a 1998 Saturday Night Live sketch, which portrayed her as lonely, former Justice Department public affairs director Carl Stern said, "Both in Florida and in Washington she has a great many friends whose homes she visits, and she goes to plays, her dance card is full."

What was the Miami Method?

Reno pioneered the "Miami Method," "a controversial technique for eliciting intimate details from young children and inspired passage of a law allowing them to testify by closed-circuit television, out of the possibly intimidating presence of their suspected molesters." Bobby Fijnje, "a 14-year-old boy, was acquitted after his attorneys discredited the children's persistent interrogations by a psychologist who called herself the 'yucky secrets doctor'." Grant Snowden was acquitted, retried, convicted, and eventually freed by a federal appeals court after 12 years in prison."

Where did Reno go to law school?

After graduating from Cornell, Reno enrolled at Harvard Law School, one of 16 women in a class of 500 students. She graduated from Harvard in 1963.

Why was Charles Ruff ruled out of the White House?

One of the few men to make the short list for the Attorney General selection, Washington lawyer Charles Ruff, was ruled out of consideration by the White House on February 6, because he had not paid Social Security taxes for years for a woman who cleaned his house.

Who was the Attorney General of the United States in 1993?

On February 4, 1993, the Clinton White House made it known via deliberate background statements to several major newspapers that 49-year-old United States federal judge Kimba Wood of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York would be his new choice for Attorney General. However, no official announcement or nomination was being made, pending the completion of background checks and to gauge reaction to the pick. White House officials indicated that First Lady Hillary Clinton had insisted that the position still be filled by a woman. Wood, who was prominent in New York social circles, was married to Time magazine writer Michael Kramer and the couple had a six-year-old son.

Who was Janet Reno?

On February 11, 1993, Janet Reno was nominated for the post. Clinton had known of her since her days with the groundbreaking Miami Drug Court, where as state attorney she had worked with public defender and Clinton brother-in-law Hugh Rodham, but otherwise although qualified for the job had no federal experience and was relatively obscure. Reno was 54 years old, had never married and had no children, and, as Clinton later wrote, "Public service was her life." Without the chance of a nanny problem, and with her mowing her own lawn reducing the chances for an immigrant problem, Reno was the perfect choice after the Baird and Wood failures. In addition, Reno's down-to-earth image contrasted with the wealthy corporate lawyer Baird and the socially prominent Wood. (Reno would instead face something often experienced by unmarried woman of her age, speculation about her sexual orientation. )

What was Dylann Roof charged with?

In July 2015, after the Charleston church shooting, Lynch announced the suspected shooter Dylann Roof would be charged with a hate crime. On May 24, 2016, she further announced that the Justice Department would seek the death penalty for Roof.

Who is Loretta Lynch?

Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York under both Presidents Bill Clinton (1999–2001) ...

What was the document that Lynch and Renteria were talking about?

In early March 2016, hackers working with Dutch intelligence had reportedly provided a highly classified Russian government document to the FBI . The document, which had "possible translation issues," had purportedly contained a memorialization of an alleged conversation between Lynch and Amanda Renteria. One of the allegations within the document reportedly said that Renteria had been assured that "Lynch would keep the Clinton investigation from going too far." FBI Director James Comey said it was "one of the bricks in the load" that led to his decision to not consult with the Department of Justice before closing the investigation, even though Lynch had denied ever speaking with Renteria, in addition to the FBI determining that the document was not credible.

Who was Eric Garner?

Following the July 2014 death of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who died after being held in a department-prohibited chokehold by a New York City police officer, Lynch agreed to meet with Garner's family to discuss possible federal prosecution of the officer believed to be responsible for Garner's death.

Who was the attorney general of FIFA?

While Lynch was U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, she supervised the investigation into senior FIFA officials from its earliest stages. The investigation culminated in the indictment of 14 senior FIFA officials and sports marketing executives shortly after Lynch was confirmed as Attorney General.

Who was the first African American woman to be appointed as Attorney General?

She was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 26, 2015, and approved by the Senate in a 56–43 vote on April 23, thereby becoming the first African-American woman; the second African-American after Holder; and the second woman, after Janet Reno; to hold this office.

Who was the Supreme Court Justice who died?

After the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Lynch's name was mentioned as being a potential nominee to replace him. On March 8, a Justice Department spokesperson said Lynch had asked the White House to withdraw her from consideration.

Early life and education

Elders was born Minnie Lee Jones in Schaal, Arkansas, to a poor, farm sharecropping family, and was the eldest of eight children, and valedictorian of her school class. The family also spent two years near a wartime shipyard in Richmond, California before returning to Schaal. In college, she changed her name to Minnie Joycelyn Lee.

Director of Arkansas Department of Health

In 1987, then-governor Bill Clinton appointed Elders as Director of the Arkansas Department of Health, making her the first African-American woman in the state to hold this position.

Experiences with racism

Elders believed that opposition to her Surgeon General nomination was driven by sexism and racism. "Some people in the American Medical Association, a certain group of them, didn't even know that I was a physician. They were passing a resolution to say that from now on every Surgeon General must be a physician—which was a knock at me. ...

Views on sex education

As an endocrinologist, Elders was especially concerned with young diabetic women getting pregnant. If young teen women who have diabetes get pregnant, they have a high chance of their bodies rejecting the fetus or the fetus developing abnormalities in utero.

Surgeon General of the United States

Elders has received a National Institutes of Health career development award, also serving as assistant professor in pediatrics at the University of Arkansas Medical Center from 1967. She was promoted to associate professor in 1971 and professor in 1976.

Post-governmental activities

Since leaving her post as Surgeon General, Elders has returned to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences as professor of pediatrics, and is currently professor emerita at UAMS. She is a regular on the lecture circuit, speaking against teen pregnancy.

External links

Office of Public Health and Science (4 January 2007). "M. Joycelyn Elders (1993–1994)". U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Archived from the original on 16 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-17.

Federal judges nominated by Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton was president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. During his time in office he had 378 judges nominated and confirmed to the federal bench. Clinton had 20 withdrawn and 105 received no vote from the Senate.

Total judgeship appointments by president, 1901-2021

The following chart shows the judgeship appointments by court made by each president from 1901 to 2021. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is abbreviated as USCAFC. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims, previously known as the U.S. Court of Claims, is abbreviated USCFC.

Average judicial appointments per year in office by president, 1901-2021

The chart below shows the number of appeals court judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate through September 1 of the first year of each president's term in office. President Biden had four confirmed nominees at this point in his presidency, President Trump had four, President George W. Bush had two, and President George H.W. Bush had two.

Appeals court confirmations through September 1 of a president's first year

The chart below shows the number of district court judges confirmed by the U.S. Senate through September 1 of the first year of each president's term in office. At this point in the term, President Biden had made the most district court appointments with five. Presidents Reagan, H.W. Bush, and W.

Overview

Early life

Early career

U.S. Attorney General

Later career

Personal life

Death

Awards and honors