Jeffrey Sutton

Jeffrey Stuart Sutton (born October 31, 1960) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the Chief United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Sutton received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Williams College in 1983. Sutton worked as a paralegal in Washington, D.C., and spent a summer at an archaeological dig site in Jordan as part of a United States Department of State cultural exchange program, then returned to Ohio to be a high school history teacher and varsity soccer coach at the Columbus Academy, a private school in Gahanna, Ohio. Sutton received his Juris Doctor from Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law in 1990. He then clerked for Judge Thomas Meskill of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1990 to 1991. Next he clerked at the United States Supreme Court from 1991 to 1992, primarily working under Antonin Scalia, who later said Sutton was "one of the very best law clerks [he] ever had", as well as for Lewis F. Powell Jr., who had assumed senior status. Sutton was in private practice in Columbus from 1992 to 1995 and 1998 to 2003, serving as Solicitor General of Ohio from 1995 to 1998. He has also served as an adjunct professor of law at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law since 1994 and more recently as a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School. He teaches state constitutional law, a subject in which he is particularly interested and about which he has written extensively. Sutton was first nominated by President George W. Bush on May 9, 2001, to a seat on the Sixth Circuit vacated by David A. Nelson, who assumed senior status on October 1, 1999. That nomination, made during the 107th United States Congress, never received a floor vote in the United States Senate. Sutton was not confirmed until almost two years later, on April 29, 2003, when the Senate of the 108th United States Congress confirmed him by a 52–41 vote. He received his commission on May 5, 2003. He became Chief Judge on May 1, 2021.