Roger Gregory

Gregory was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but grew up in Petersburg, Virginia.{{cite news|last=Porter|first=Mike|title=VCU Lauds the Hon. Roger L. Gregory for Public Service|url=http://www.news.vcu.edu/news.aspx?v=detail&nid=1141|publisher=Virginia Commonwealth University|date=May 5, 2006|access-date=November 15, 2008}} He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from Virginia State University in 1975 and his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1978. He worked as an associate for Butzel Long and Hunton & Williams from 1978 until 1982. He co-founded the Richmond, Virginia law firm of Wilder & Gregory in 1982 with L. Douglas Wilder (the first African-American to be elected governor in the United States), and became the chair of its litigation section in 1985. Gregory is also a member of several fraternal organizations, including Omega Psi Phi fraternity, and Sigma Pi Phi fraternity.

On June 30, 2000, President Bill Clinton nominated Gregory to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that had been vacant for close to a decade since it had been created (the Senate had never acted on Clinton's previous nominee to that seat, J. Rich Leonard).{{cite web |title=Pres. Nom. 1129 |url=https://www.congress.gov/nomination/106th-congress/1129 |website=106th Cong. (2000)|date=December 15, 2000 }} After the Senate declined to take up Gregory's nomination, and the 2000 presidential election was already over, Clinton installed Gregory on the Fourth Circuit on December 27, 2000, via a recess appointment, which would have lasted only until the end of the 2001 Congressional session. However, he was renominated by newly elected President George W. Bush on May 9, 2001.

The Senate confirmed Gregory on July 20, 2001, by a 93–1 vote, with Trent Lott of Mississippi casting the lone dissenting vote because he objected to Clinton's use of his recess appointment power.{{cite web |title=On the Nomination (Confirmation: Roger L. Gregory, of Virginia, to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fourth Circuit)|url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1071/vote_107_1_00244.htm|website=senate.gov}} Gregory was the first judge nominated to the Fourth Circuit by Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate and is the first black judge to serve on the Fourth Circuit.{{cite news |last1=Mitchell |first1=Alison |title=Senators Confirm 3 Judges, Including Once-Stalled Black |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/21/us/senators-confirm-3-judges-including-once-stalled-black.html |access-date=March 19, 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=July 21, 2001}} He received his commission on July 25, 2001.{{FJC Bio|nid=1391276|inline=yes}} Gregory became chief judge on July 8, 2016.{{cite web|url=http://www.greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/ed8124ba05194f398d9426cc4a84dfac|title=Judge Roger L. Gregory will become the next chief judge of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals|publisher=Daily Reporter|work=The Associated Press|date=July 5, 2016|access-date=July 7, 2016}} and served a seven-year-term through July 8, 2023.

On July 28, 2014, Gregory joined the majority opinion with Henry F. Floyd in Bostic v. Schaefer that declared Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. This decision led to the legalization of same-sex marriage in Virginia as well as all other states throughout the Fourth Circuit.{{cite news |last1=Snow |first1=Justin |title=Federal appeals court rules Virginia same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional |url=https://www.metroweekly.com/2014/07/federal-appeals-court-rules-virginia-same-sex-marriage-ban-unconstitutional/ |access-date=March 30, 2025 |work=Metro Weekly |date=July 28, 2014}}

On May 25, 2017, Gregory wrote for the majority when the en banc circuit upheld a lower court's injunction blocking the President's travel ban by a 10-3 vote in Int'l Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump.{{cite news|last1=Adam Liptak|author-link=Adam Liptak|title=Appeals Court Will Not Reinstate Trump's Revised Travel Ban|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/us/politics/trump-travel-ban-blocked.html|access-date=May 28, 2017|work=The New York Times|date=May 26, 2017|page=A1}}{{Cite web|url=https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3733125/5-25-17-4th-Circuit-IRAP.pdf|title=United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit}}

In October 2017, Gregory dissented when the panel majority found that the Bladensburg Peace Cross memorial from World War I now violated the Constitution's Establishment Clause, and he wrote another dissent when the circuit denied rehearing en banc.{{cite court |litigants=Am. Humanist Ass’n v. Md.-Nat’l Capital Park & Planning Comm’n|vol=874|reporter=F.3d|opinion=195|court=4th Cir.|date=2017|url= https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5198290443936877812 }}{{cite court |litigants=Am. Humanist Ass’n v. Md.-Nat’l Capital Park & Planning Comm’n|vol=891|reporter=F.3d|opinion=117|court=4th Cir.|date=2018) (mem.|url= https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=15330641404497563458 }}{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note|title=Recent Case: En Banc Fourth Circuit Denies Rehearing of Holding that Cross-Shaped World War I Memorial Violates Establishment Clause|volume=132 |journal=Harv. L. Rev. | page=1353| url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/1353-1360_Online-1.pdf| year=2019}} The circuit's judgement was then reversed by the Supreme Court of the United States in American Legion v. American Humanist Association (2019).{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note| title=The Supreme Court, 2018 Term — Leading Cases | volume=133 | journal=Harv. L. Rev. | page=262 | url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/262-271_Online.pdf| year=2019}}

• Bill Clinton judicial appointment controversies
• George W. Bush judicial appointment controversies
• List of African-American federal judges
• List of African-American jurists
• List of first minority male lawyers and judges in the United States
• List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Virginia

{{Reflist}}

• {{FJC Bio|nid=1391276}}
• {{C-SPAN}}
• [http://www.uiowa.edu/~030116/153/articles/lewis02.htm New York Times article discussing Clinton's recess appointment.]
• [http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york050901.shtml National Review article discussing Bush re-nomination of Gregory.]

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{{s-bef|before=Seat established by 104 Stat. 5089}}

{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit}}|years=2000–present}}

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{{s-bef|before=William Byrd Traxler Jr.}}

{{s-ttl|title={{nowrap|Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit}}|years=2016–2023}}

{{s-aft|after=Albert Diaz}}

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Category:1953 births

Category:21st-century African-American lawyers

Category:21st-century American lawyers

Category:African-American judges

Category:Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Category:Living people

Category:People associated with Hunton Andrews Kurth

Category:People from Petersburg, Virginia

Category:Lawyers from Philadelphia

Category:Recess appointments

Category:United States court of appeals judges appointed by Bill Clinton

Category:United States court of appeals judges appointed by George W. Bush

Category:University of Michigan Law School alumni

Category:Virginia lawyers

Category:Virginia State University alumni