T.S. Ellis, III

Encyclopedia : T : TS : TSE : T.S. Ellis, III

Thomas Selby Ellis, III (born 1940 in Bogotá, Colombia) is currently serving as judge on the United States District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Ellis served in the United States Navy from 1961 to 1966, and was educated at Princeton University where he earned a B.S.E. in 1961. He then earned a J.D. from Harvard University in 1969, and a Diploma in Law in 1970 from Oxford University. Ellis then entered private practice where he remained until 1987. He also was a lecturer at the College of William and Mary, from 1981 to 1983. Ellis was nominated by President Ronald Reagan on July 1, 1987, to a seat vacated by Robert R. Merhige. He was confirmed by the Senate on August 5, 1987.

On Thursday, May 18, 2006 Ellis dismissed a lawsuit filed by Khalid El-Masri, a German citizen, against the CIA and three private companies allegedly involved with his kidnapping, transport, and torture in Kabul. Ellis explained his belief that a public trial would "present a grave risk of injury to national security"[link], though acknowledging that "if El-Masri's allegations are true or essentially true, then all fair-minded people, including those who believe that state secrets must be protected, that this lawsuit cannot proceed, and that renditions are a necessary step to take in this war, must also agree that El-Masri has suffered injuries as a result of our country's mistake and deserves a remedy."[link]

Judge Ellis also presided in the first corporate whistle-blower case to emerge from Iraq, in which a federal jury in Virginia in March 2006 found a contractor, Custer Battles L.L.C., guilty of defrauding the United States by filing grossly inflated invoices for work in the chaotic year after the Iraqi invasion.

References

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.