Randolph Moss

{{Infobox judge

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Randolph Moss

| honorific-suffix =

| image = Randolph Moss (cropped).jpg

| alt =

| caption = Moss in 2021

| office = Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia

| term_start = November 14, 2014

| term_end =

| nominator =

| appointer = Barack Obama

| predecessor = Robert L. Wilkins

| successor =

| office1 = United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel

| term_start1 = 1998

| term_end1 = 2001
Acting until 2000

| nominator1 =

| appointer1 = Bill Clinton

| predecessor1 = Dawn Johnsen

| successor1 = Jay Bybee

| pronunciation =

| birth_name = Randolph Daniel Moss

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1961|04|27}}

| birth_place = Springfield, Ohio

| death_date =

| death_place =

| death_cause =

| resting_place =

| resting_place_coordinates =

| citizenship =

| nationality =

| party =

| otherparty =

| height =

| spouse =

| partner =

| relations =

| children =

| parents =

| mother =

| father =

| relatives =

| residence =

| education = Hamilton College (BA)
Yale University (JD)

| occupation =

| profession =

| known_for =

| salary =

| net_worth =

| cabinet =

| committees =

| portfolio =

| religion =

| awards =

| signature =

| signature_alt =

| website =

| footnotes =

}}

Randolph Daniel Moss (born April 27, 1961) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Biography

Moss was born Raymond Daniel Moss,{{Cite web |last=Bellinger |first=Dawn |title=Randolph Daniel Moss |url=https://dcchs.org/judges/moss-randolph-daniel/ |access-date=2024-09-04 |website=Historical Society of the D.C. Circuit |language=en-US}} in Springfield, Ohio, into the family of Howard and Adrienne Moss, which also included his brother Eric Moss{{cite web|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-106shrg73031/html/CHRG-106shrg73031.htm|title=- CONFIRMATION HEARINGS ON FEDERAL APPOINTMENTS|website=www.gpo.gov}} and his sister Cynthia F. Moss.{{Cite journal |last=Moss |first=Cynthia F. |date=2001 |title=It Was a Bat Year |url=https://www.wiko-berlin.de/fileadmin/Jahrbuchberichte/2000/2000_01_Moss_Cynthia_Jahrbuchbericht.pdf |journal=Wissenschaftskolleg Jahrbuch Arbeitsberichte |pages=128–130}} He received a B.A., summa cum laude, in 1983 from Hamilton College. He received a Juris Doctor in 1986 from Yale Law School. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Pierre N. Leval of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, from 1986 to 1987, and then served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court, from 1988 to 1989. He worked at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering from 1989 to 1996. From 1996 to 2001, he worked at the United States Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, in a number of capacities. He served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General, from 1996 to 1998, Acting Assistant Attorney General, from 1998 to 2000, and as Assistant Attorney General, from 2000 to 2001.{{Cite web|title = District Judge Randolph D Moss {{!}} United States District Court |url =http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/content/district-judge-randolph-d-moss |website = www.dcd.uscourts.gov |access-date = 2016-12-04}} After his service in the Justice Department, he returned to his previous law firm, now known as Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr LLP, where he chaired the firm's Regulatory and Government Affairs Department, leaving the firm upon his confirmation as a federal judge in November 2014.{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/03/president-obama-nominates-two-serve-united-states-district-courts|work=whitehouse.gov|title=President Obama Nominates Two to Serve on the United States District Courts|via=National Archives|date=3 April 2014}}{{FJC Bio|nid=1394636|inline=yes}}

=Federal agency service=

In 2000, when Moss was an assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the United States Department of Justice, he wrote the memorandum opinion advising that the Department could not indict a sitting president.{{cite web | url=https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/olc/opinions/2000/10/31/op-olc-v024-p0222_0.pdf | title=A Sitting President's Amenability to Indictment and Criminal Prosecution, October 16, 2000| website = Department of Justice | access-date = April 19, 2019}} "The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions."

The Mueller Report (March 2019, Vol. II, p. 1{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/18/us/politics/mueller-report-document.html#g-page-213?smid=tw-share | title=Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, March 2019 | work=The New York Times | date=18 April 2019 | access-date = April 20, 2019}}) cited the Moss memorandum in partial justification of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's decision not to indict President Donald Trump. "Given the role of the Special Counsel as an attorney in the Department of Justice and the framework of the Special Counsel regulations, see 28 U.S.C. § 515; 28 C.F.R. § 600.7(a), this Office accepted OLC's legal conclusion for the purpose of exercising prosecutorial jurisdiction."

=Federal judicial service=

File:JudgeMossPhotoCropped.jpg

On April 3, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Moss to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, to the seat vacated by Judge Robert L. Wilkins, who was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.{{cite web|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/03/presidential-nominations-sent-senate|work=whitehouse.gov|title=Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate|via=National Archives|date=3 April 2014}} He received a hearing before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on May 20, 2014.{{cite web|title=May 20, 2014: Judicial Nominations|url=http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/judicial-nominations-2014-05-20|publisher=United States Senate}} On June 19, 2014 his nomination was reported out of committee by a 11–7 vote.{{cite web|url=http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Results%20of%20Executive%20Business%20Meeting%20-%2006-19-14.pdf|title=Executive Business Meeting|publisher=Committee on the Judiciary|work=United States Senate|access-date=19 June 2014}} On September 18, 2014, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid filed for cloture on his nomination. On November 12, 2014, the United States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 53–45 vote.{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=2&vote=00271|title=On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Nomination of Randolph D. Moss, of Maryland, to be U.S. District Judge for D.C.)|publisher=United States Senate|access-date=12 November 2014}} On November 13, 2014, his nomination was confirmed by a 54–45 vote.{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=2&vote=00273|title=On the Nomination (Confirmation Randolph D. Moss, of Maryland, to be U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia)|publisher=United States Senate|access-date=13 November 2014}} He received his judicial commission on November 14, 2014.

=Notable rulings=

In May 2016, Moss found that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act prevented an Ethiopian dissident living under asylum in the United States from suing the Ethiopian government for infecting his home computer with FinSpy spyware and then surveilling him in Maryland.{{Bluebook journal|first=|last=Note|title=Recent Case: D.C. Circuit Finds Ethiopia Immune in Hacking Suit|volume=131|journal=Harv. L. Rev.| page=1179|url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/1179-1186_Online.pdf|year=2018}}{{cite court|litigants=Doe v. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia|vol=189|reporter=F. Supp. 3d|opinion=6|court=D.D.C.|date=2016|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16669983635972062290|accessdate=}}

On October 16, 2018, Moss ruled against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after she stopped an Obama-era rule from taking effect which protected students against fraud from for-profit colleges.{{Cite web |url=https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/411637-court-rules-obama-era-student-loan-regulations-must-take-effect|title=Court rules Obama-era student loan regulations must take effect|last=Rodrigo|first=Chris Mills|date=2018-10-16|website=TheHill|language=en|access-date=2018-11-19}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/16/politics/devos-borrower-defense-lawsuit/index.html|title=Obama-era student debt relief takes effect|last=Lobosco|first=Katie|date=2018-10-18|website=CNN.com|access-date=2018-11-19}}

On March 1, 2020, Moss ruled that President Donald Trump unlawfully installed Ken Cuccinelli as acting Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and that therefore, certain directives related to removal of undocumented immigrants seeking asylum he implemented “must be set aside.”{{Cite web |url=https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.210960/gov.uscourts.dcd.210960.34.0.pdf |title=Civil Action No. 19-2676(RDM) |language=en |access-date=1 March 2020}}

On December 26, 2020, Moss ruled that the United States Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled the execution of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row.{{Cite web |last=Balsamo |first=Michael |date=December 26, 2020 |title=Judge delays execution of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/26/judge-delays-execution-lisa-montgomery-federal-death-row/4050681001/ |access-date=January 3, 2021 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}} On January 1, 2021, a three judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated Moss's ruling.{{Cite web |date=January 2, 2021 |title=Appeals court vacates order delaying Lisa Montgomery's execution |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lisa-montgomery-execution-appeals-court-vacates-order-delaying/ |access-date=January 3, 2021 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}

On July 19, 2021, Moss sentenced Paul Hodgkins, a Florida man who participated in the 2021 United States Capitol attack to eight months in prison. Moss acknowledged that this man was part of a larger mob, but said that "Although you were only one member of a larger mob, you actively participated in a larger event that threatened the Capitol and democracy itself." At the time of his sentencing, Hodgkins is the third person to be sentenced for their participation in the January 6 riot, and his sentence is the longest thus far.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/florida-man-gets-1st-felony-sentence-role-capitol-riot-n1274353|title=Florida man gets 8 months in prison in 1st felony sentence from Capitol riot|website=NBC News|date=July 19, 2021|access-date=July 19, 2021}}