Timothy B. Dyk

Timothy Belcher Dyk (born February 14, 1937) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Education and early career

The son of noted women's suffragist and psychologist Ruth Belcher Dyk,^[1] and Walter Dyk who studied and wrote about the Navajo Indians.^[2] Dyk was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He earned his bachelor's degree cum laude from Harvard College in 1958, and earned his law degree magna cum laude in 1961 from the Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the law review. Dyk clerked for retired United States Supreme Court Justices Stanley Reed and Harold Burton in 1961 and 1962, and clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1962-1963. From 1963 until 1964, Dyk completed a one-year assignment with the United States Department of Justice as Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Tax Division.

Private practice

Dyk worked in private practice as an attorney in Washington, D.C. from 1964 until 2000, first with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, and later with Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, where he was chair of the Issues and Appeals practice. He was a lecturer at the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983, 1986, and 1989, a visiting professor and lecturer at the University of Virginia Law School from 1984 to 1985 and from 1987 to 1988, and was also a lecturer at Yale Law School in 1986, 1987, and 1989. Immediately prior to being nominated to the Federal Circuit in 1998, Dyk was a partner at Jones Day, specializing in First Amendment law. One case saw Dyk arguing for the release to the public of the cockpit recordings of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.^[3] In an August 4, 1997 article in the Washington Post, Dyk was identified as one of "only a handful of repeat performers considered heavyweights" in representing clients before the U.S. Supreme Court. Dyk also made the news in the early and mid-1990s for his desire to open federal courtrooms to news media organizations.^[4] After the Judicial Conference of the United States voted on September 20, 1994 to keep cameras out of federal courtrooms by ending a pilot program that had allowed cameras at civil trials and appeals in eight courts, Dyk told the Washington Post that "they appear to have slammed the door on a very important experiment, which, if it had been expanded, would have benefited people throughout the country."^[5]

Federal judicial service

On April 6, 1998, President Bill Clinton nominated Dyk to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated by Glenn L. Archer, Jr.. With the U.S. Senate controlled by Republicans, Dyk's nomination languished for more than two years. The delay was due in part to some Republican senators' views that the Federal Circuit did not need another judge. Dyk was confirmed to his federal circuit seat by the U.S. Senate by a 74-25 vote on May 24, 2000.^[6] He received his commission on May 25, 2000.

Personal

Dyk's wife, Sally Katzen, was the Deputy Director for Management, Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton administration.

References

External links

• Timothy B. Dyk at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.