U.S. Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle NE
Washington, DC 20002-8002
For Immediate Release |
Contact: Michael Courlander Public Affairs Officer (202) 502-4597 |
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 25, 2003) — Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, at an investiture ceremony held at the Supreme Court of the United States, today administered the oath of office to two new members of the U.S. Sentencing Commission: United States District Court Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Michael E. Horowitz. President George W. Bush on May 27 had appointed Judge Hinojosa and Mr. Horowitz to six-year terms as commissioners.
“We are extremely pleased to welcome these two fine jurists to the Sentencing Commission,” said Judge Diana E. Murphy, Commission chair. “Both Judge Hinojosa and Mr. Horowitz bring with them extensive experience with sentencing issues, and I have no doubt that they will contribute significantly to the Commission’s work.”
Judge Hinojosa, who has served on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas since 1983, also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law. From 1976 until 1983, he was an attorney with the Ewers & Toothaker Law Firm and was a partner at the time he became a judge. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972, and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1975. Judge Hinojosa received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas Ex-Students’ Association in 2001. He served as member (1979-83) and chairman (1981-83) of the Pan American University Board of Regents, and in 1986 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Pan American University Alumni Association. He has been appointed to fill the position vacated by Joe Kendall, former United States district court judge from the Northern District of Texas, whose term expired on November 22, 2002.
Mr. Horowitz is currently a partner with the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. Previously, he served in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in 1999 and as chief of staff from 2000-2002. From 1991 through 1999, Mr. Horowitz was an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he served as deputy chief of the Criminal Division and chief of the Public Corruption Unit. His work on a complex, five-year corruption investigation earned him the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award. Mr. Horowitz received his B.A. summa cum laude from Brandeis University in 1984 and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1987. He has been appointed to fill the position vacated by United States District Court Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr., whose term also expired on November 22, 2002.
By statute, the Sentencing Commission is composed of seven voting members
and two nonvoting ex-officio members. No more than four commissioners may be
members of the same political party, and no more than three may be federal
judges. Other members of the Sentencing Commission include the chair, Judge
Diana E. Murphy of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit;
three vice chairs, Judge Ruben Castillo of the Northern District of Illinois,
Chief Judge William K. Sessions, III, of the United States District Court of
Vermont; and Mr. John R. Steer; and Commissioner
Michael E. O’ Neill.