Karen LeCraft Henderson (born 1944) is a United States federal judge who was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in July 1990, by President George H. W. Bush.
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Early life, education, and career
Born and raised in Oberlin, Ohio, Henderson received a B.A. degree from Duke University in 1966 and a J.D. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1969. Henderson then entered private practice in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. From 1973 to 1983, she was with the Office of the South Carolina Attorney General, ultimately in the position of Deputy Attorney General. In 1983, she returned to private practice as a member of the firm of Sinkler, Gibbs & Simons of Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina.
Federal judicial service
On June 3, 1986, Henderson was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina vacated by William W. Wilkins, Jr. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 13, 1986, and received her commission on June 16, 1986.
On May 8, 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominated Henderson to a seat on the D.C. Circuit that had been vacated by the resignation of Kenneth Starr. The United States Senate confirmed Henderson on June 28, 1990 by unanimous consent, and she received her commission on July 5, 1990.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
In 2008, Henderson, ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a statute that applies by its terms to all "persons" did not apply to detainees at Guantánamo.[1]
Parker v. District of Columbia
In Parker, et al. v. District of Columbia (2007) Henderson authored a dissent in which she wrote "the right of the people to keep and bear arms relates to those Militia whose continued vitality is required to safeguard the individual States."[2] She also wrote that "the Constitution, case law and applicable statutes all establish that the District is not a state within the meaning of the Second Amendment".[3]
References
- Karen L. Henderson at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
External links
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