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Biography
John Montague Steadman (born 1938 or 1939) is a Senior Judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, the highest court for the District of Columbia. He was appointed to the court in 1985 and took senior status in 2004.
Steadman was born and raised in Honolulu, where he graduated from Punahou School. He graduated from Yale College in 1952, where he was a member of Skull and Bones. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1955 and became an associate at Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro in San Francisco. In 1963, Steadman moved to Washington, D.C. to work at the Office of Legal Counsel in the United States Department of Justice. His career in government service culminated in two years as General Counsel of the Air Force, after which he entered academia. Steadman taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 1970 to 1972 and at Georgetown University Law Center from 1972 to 1985.
In 1985, Steadman was nominated to the D.C. Court of Appeals by President Reagan and confirmed by the Senate. He was Reagan's second choice to fill the seat; Reagan's first nominee, Deputy U.S. Solicitor General Andrew L. Frey, was withdrawn due to opposition from conservatives who expressed concern about Frey's stance on gun control and abortion.