David B. Sentelle

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Judge David Bryan Sentelle (born 1943) is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Sentelle was born in Canton, NC, and attended college and law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sentelle practiced law until becoming an assistant U.S. Attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina in January 1970. From 1974 to 1977, Sentelle was the North Carolina State District Judge. He then practiced law privately until being appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina by President Ronald Reagan in 1985. Sentelle was appointed to his current position to replace Antonin Scalia in 1987.

On the D.C. Court of Appeals, Sentelle voted to overturn the convictions of Oliver North and John Poindexter, along with Judge Laurence Silberman. He was one of the judges responsible for appointing Kenneth Starr to replace Robert B. Fiske as lead independent council to investigate President Bill Clinton.

In 2007, in Boumediene v. Bush, 375 U.S. App. D.C. 48, Judge Sentelle concurred with Judge Arthur Raymond Randolph, relying on Johnson v. Eisentrager, to uphold the Military Commissions Act's suspension of habeas corpus for enemy combatants as constitutional. Judge Judith Ann Wilson Rogers dissented.

[edit] Publications

• Sentelle, David B. (2002). Judge Dave and the Rainbow People. Green Bag Press, Washington D.C. ISBN 0-9677568-3-9