Cormac J. Carney

Cormac J. Carney
Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California
Incumbent
Assumed office April 9, 2003
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Carlos R. Moreno
Judge of the Superior Court of Orange County
In office 2001–2003
Appointed by	Gray Davis
Personal details
Born	Cormac Joseph Carney[1] May 6, 1959[2] Detroit, Michigan
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)

Cormac Joseph Carney (born May 6, 1959) is a United States federal judge.

Early life and education

Carney was born in Detroit, Michigan to Irish immigrant parents who were doctors.^[3][4] His father is one of County Mayo's greatest ever Gaelic Football players, Pádraig Carney, famously known as 'The Flying Doctor', and the winner of 2 All Ireland Football Championships with Mayo, in 1950 and 1951. He was raised in Long Beach, California, where he attended St. Anthony High School.^[3] Carney received a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1983 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1987. He attended the U.S. Air Force Academy for one year before transferring to UCLA.^[4]

Football career

Cormac Carney

Career information
Position(s)	Wide receiver
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight	200 lb (91 kg)
College	UCLA
High school	Long Beach (CA) St. Anthony
Career history
As player
1984	Memphis Showboats (USFL)
Career stats
Receptions	37
Receiving yards	701
Receiving TDs	2
Kick return yards	74

Carney was a wide receiver on the UCLA Bruins football team. During his three years with the Bruins, he was the team leader in receiving each year and had a 3.51 grade point average in psychology.

For his outstanding performances on the football field, he was named to the GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America football team and to the All-Pacific-10 Conference teams in 1981 and 1982. He was the Bruins' all-time leading receiver with over 100 receptions for nearly 2,000 yards when UCLA was 26-7-2. The Bruins were rated as high as #5 in the national polls. Carney's highlight at UCLA was when the team beat Michigan in the 1983 Rose Bowl.

He played for the USFL team Memphis Showboats in the 1984 season. Carney made 37 receptions for 701 yards and 2 touchdowns.^[2]

In 2005, Carney was inducted into the College Sports Information Director's of America Academic All-America Hall of Fame.

Legal and judicial career

Carney was in private practice for two firms in Los Angeles, California for 15 years. From 2001 to 2003, he was a judge on the California Superior Court in Orange County, appointed to the post by then Governor Gray Davis.

On January 7, 2003, Carney was nominated by President George W. Bush to a seat on the United States District Court for the Central District of California vacated by Carlos R. Moreno. Carney was confirmed by the United States Senate on April 7, 2003, and received his commission on April 9, 2003. At the district court, Carney has handled complex civil and criminal matters, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, securities, business finance, civil rights, drug conspiracies and white collar crime.

On July 16, 2014, Carney declared the California death penalty to be unconstitutional, saying it is so arbitrary and plagued with delays that it violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. In his 29-page order he vacated the death sentence of Ernest Dewayne Jones, who was sentenced to death in 1995 for rape and murder. The order was appealed by the Attorney General, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on August 31, 2015, and in a unanimous decision overturned the decision on November 12, 2015.<Los Angeles Times, 11/13/15)

Judge Carney was involved in a 2012 decision to dismiss the bulk of the claims in Fazaga v. FBI.^[5]

Personal

He and wife MaryBeth have three children, Thomas, John, and Claire.^[6]

References

1. "Presidential Nomination: Cormac Joseph Carney". US National Archives.
2. "Cormac Carney". Just Sports Stats. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
3. Zimmerman, Martin (December 16, 2009). "Judge in Broadcom case retains his elusive streak". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 20, 2009. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
4. Abdollahi, Panteha (June 2010). "Judicial Profile: Hon. Cormac J. Carney, U.S. District Judge, Central District of California". The Federal Lawyer. Federal Bar Association. pp. 48–50. Archived from the original on October 21, 2011.
5. http://www.aclusocal.org/response-to-domestic-surveillance-suit-ruling/
6. "Cormac Carney To Be Inducted into CoSIDA Academic All-America Hall of Fame". UCLABruins.com. June 24, 2005. Retrieved August 14, 2011.

External links

• Cormac J. Carney at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.