Michael W. Mosman

Michael Wise Mosman (born December 23, 1956) is the Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, and is simultaneously serving a 2013-2020 term on the FISA Court. The Oregon native previously served as the United States Attorney for the same district.

Michael Mosman was born in the Willamette Valley of Oregon in 1956 in the city of Eugene. He grew up in Lewiston, Idaho, the son of an attorney and judge with an older sister and three younger brothers. He attended Ricks College in Idaho, which is now Brigham Young University–Idaho. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979 before attending Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

At Utah State he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1981, and was the valedictorian of his class. Mosman then went on to law school at Brigham Young University's J. Reuben Clark Law School. He graduated there in 1984 with a juris doctorate. At BYU he was the editor of the law review, and graduated magna cum laude.

In 1984, Mosman began clerking for Malcolm Richard Wilkey, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The following year he entered private legal practice for part of 1985. Mosman then was a judicial clerk for United States Supreme Court justice Lewis F. Powell. While clerking for Powell, he was involved in the justice's voting to uphold Georgia's sodomy law in Bowers v. Hardwick. After leaving Powell's employ, Mosman entered private practice in Portland, Oregon in 1986.

In 1988, he began working as an assistant United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, remaining until 2001. That year he became the U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, serving until 2003. He replaced Kristine Olson Rogers who had resigned. In 2003, United States President George W. Bush nominated Mosman to serve as judge for the United States District Court for the District of Oregon on May 8 to take the seat of Robert E. Jones, who had assumed senior status on the court. Mosman was confirmed by the United States Senate on September 25, 2003, and received his federal commission the following day. He became Chief Judge on February 1, 2016.

Mosman issued a temporary injunction in December 2007 to prevent Oregon's new civil union law from taking effect in January. This was in response to a legal challenge by a group that had attempted to place a referendum on the November 2008 ballot to block the civil union law that had been passed by the Oregon Legislative Assembly. The legal issue centered on how the Oregon Secretary of State verified signatures on petitions. On February 1, 2008, in Lemons v. Bradbury, he dismissed the lawsuit and lifted the injunction, with the law immediately going into effect.

Mosman is married to the former Suzanne Cannon Hogan, and they have five children. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.