Richard Carl Wesley (born August 1, 1949) is a senior United States circuit judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate ju ...

Education and background

He was born on August 1, 1949 in

Canandaigua Canandaigua (; ''Utaʼnaráhkhwaʼ'' in Tuscarora) is a city in Ontario County, New York, United States. Its population was 10,545 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Ontario County; some administrative offices are at the county compl ...

Ontario County, New York Ontario County is a county in the U.S. State of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 112,458. The county seat is Canandaigua. Ontario County is part of the Rochester, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2006, ''Progressive ...

. Wesley attended the

State University of New York at Albany The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

followed by Cornell Law School, receiving a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1971 and Juris Doctor in 1974, respectively. He began his career as a lawyer in private practice in Pittsford and

Geneseo, New York Geneseo is a town in Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. It is at the south end of the five-county Rochester Metropolitan Area. The population of the town was 10,483 at the 2010 census. The English name ...

between 1976 and 1987. He entered politics as a

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, and was assistant counsel to the minority party in the New York State Assembly from 1979 to 1982. He was a member of the Assembly from 1983 to 1986, sitting in the 185th and

186th New York State Legislature The 186th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 9, 1985, to December 31, 1986, during the third and fourth years of Mario Cuomo's governorship, in Albany. Backgrou ...

State judicial service

Wesley's judicial career began with his election to the

New York State Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

in 1986. He served as a trial judge on the Supreme Court from 1987 to 1994, when he was appointed to the Appellate Division. He was an associate justice of New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department from 1994 to 1996. In 1997, Governor

George Pataki George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 53rd governor of New York from 1995 to 2006. An attorney by profession, Pataki was elected mayor of his hometown of Peekskill, New York, and went on ...

selected Wesley as his first appointee to serve as an Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, which he did until 2003.

Federal judicial service

On March 5, 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Wesley to the Second Circuit in order to fill the seat vacated by Judge Pierre N. Leval, who assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

. The

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

confirmed Wesley's nomination just over three months later on June 11, 2003 by a 96–0 vote. He received his commission on June 12, 2003. He assumed

on August 1, 2016.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wesley, Richard Carl 1949 births 21st-century American judges Cornell Law School alumni Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Living people Judges of the New York Court of Appeals New York (state) Republicans Politicians from Canandaigua, New York United States court of appeals judges appointed by George W. Bush University at Albany, SUNY alumni New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department justices