Kmiec, Douglas William, 1951-

<p>Douglas William Kmiec (born September 24, 1951) is an American legal scholar, author, and former U.S. ambassador. He is the Caruso Family Chair and Professor of Constitutional Law at Pepperdine University School of Law. Kmiec came to prominence during the 2008 United States presidential election when, although a Republican, he endorsed Democrat Barack Obama. In July 2009, he was nominated by President Obama to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Malta. He was confirmed by the Senate and served for close to two years as ambassador to Malta. He resigned his post effective May 31, 2011.</p>

<p>Kmiec received his undergraduate degree with honors from Northwestern University in 1973 and his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Southern California in 1976. He was a member of the school's law review and was awarded the Legion Lex Commencement Prize for Legal Writing.</p>

<p>Kmiec was a member of the faculty at Valparaiso University School of Law, then taught at Notre Dame Law School from 1980 to 1999, with several leaves to serve in the Office of Legal Counsel for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. At Notre Dame, he directed the Thomas White Center on Law & Government and founded the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy. From 2001 to 2003, Kmiec was the Dean and St. Thomas More Professor of the law school at the Catholic University of America. Following his Catholic University of America deanship, Kmiec assumed the endowed chair in constitutional law at Pepperdine University School of Law. Kmiec also teaches at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy.</p>

<p>Kmiec has been a White House Fellow and a Distinguished Fulbright Scholar on the Constitution in Asia. His published works include <i>The Attorney General's Lawyer</i> (1992), three books on the American Constitution, a two-volume legal treatise, related books, and hundreds of published articles and essays. He is a frequent guest in the media on programs such as PBS's NewsHour, Meet the Press, and NPR, analyzing constitutional questions. He writes the Faith and Precedent column for the Catholic News Service.</p>

<p>Although he initially supported Republican Mitt Romney, Kmiec "caused a stir" when he endorsed Democrat Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election in a piece on Slate. As he explained in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, "One of the things I kept discovering...was that Obama was sounding more Catholic than most Catholics I know." The issues that drew Kmiec's attention were wages, health care, and the cost of the Iraq War. To those fellow Catholics and pro-life advocates who were surprised at his position, he argued that Obama's desire to "alleviate social conditions that correlate with abortion", such as poverty, was convincing. In the endorsement itself, Kmiec explained his disagreements with Obama, especially over the issue of abortion, but indicated that it was time to find common ground on this and other topics. Kmiec opened his piece by praising Obama's "integrity, intelligence, and genuine good will".</p>

<p>On July 2, 2009, President Obama nominated Kmiec as Ambassador to Malta. He was confirmed by the Senate. In April 2011, he was criticized by the Inspector General of the State Department for spending too much time on what the OIG reported as unofficial (religious) duties, which Kmiec saw as integral to his ambassadorial role. Joshua DuBois, special assistant to the president for faith-based initiatives, described the Kmiec nomination and appointment in precisely these terms, however, referring to a mandate (seemingly not considered by the OIG) as "the special presidential logic" of the appointment and its core mission. By contrast, the Inspector General saw the religious writing as "not directly related to his mission," writes Tiffany Stanley of The New Republic. Continues Stanley: "in the annals of diplomatic misbehavior, Kmiec's is rather an unusual case. Even the critical OIG report notes that embassy morale was good, he was respected by the Maltese and his staff, and had 'achieved some policy successes'. The problem, it seems, was that Kmiec may have taken the job a little too seriously." Columnist Tim Rutten of the Los Angeles Times writes: "Over the last few years, Kmiec has emerged as one of this country's most important witnesses to the proposition that religious conviction and political civility need not be at odds; that reasonable people of determined good conscience, whatever their faith or lack thereof, can find ways to cooperate in the common good. Though Kmiec has not sought their intervention, the president and the secretary of State ought to deal with the bureaucrats seeking to silence a voice whose only offense is to speak in the vocabulary of our own better angels." Kmiec did not ask the president to intervene, but instead expressing his continued confidence in the president's leadership, resigned effective May 31, 2011.</p>

<p>In a January 2014 Facebook post, Kmiec declared himself an independent candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 26th congressional district, while simultaneously expressing his interest in running as the Democratic party candidate for Vice-President of the United States in the event Hillary Clinton were to receive that party's presidential nomination. In his announcement, Kmiec declared the Democratic and Republican parties were "so deeply into the pockets of corporate donors for millions and millions of dollars that the thought of being responsive to the people has long since fallen from their memory." Kmiec explained his decision as being motivated by a desire to find a place he could do good while he still had the "energy and excitement of the ideas of social justice especially as they are now so well articulated by Pope Francis." The Chief political correspondent for the dominant paper in the district commented that "Douglas Kmiec may be the most interesting and most learned individual ever to run for Congress in Ventura County."</p>

<p>In the open primary, Kmiec won 2.3% of the vote.</p>

<p>Kmiec was married to Carolyn Keenan in 1973 and together they had five children. The couple separated in 2011 and divorced in 2013.</p>

<p>President Obama rewarded one of his most prominent conservative Catholic supporters by nominating Douglas W. Kmiec to be ambassador to Malta, a tiny Mediterranean island nation with an overwhelmingly Catholic population and little present-day strategic significance. In fact, the position has been filled exclusively by political appointees since 1987. Nominated on July 2, 2009, Kmiec was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on August 7, and sworn in September 2, 2009.</p>

<p>Kmiec was born September 24, 1951, in Chicago. He earned a B.A. from Northwestern University in 1973 and a J.D. from the University of Southern California in 1976. He was a member of the law faculty at the University of Notre Dame from 1980 to 1999, including director of the Thomas J. White Center on Law and Government from 1987 to 1988. During those years, he received leaves of absence to serve in the Reagan administration. He served as Special Assistant to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1982 to 1983. He worked in the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel from 1985 to 1989, first as Deputy Assistant Attorney General from 1985 to 1987, and then as Assistant Attorney General from 1988 to 1989. From 2001 to 2003, he was Dean and St. Thomas More Professor of Law at The Catholic University of America School of Law in Washington, D.C. Since 2003, he has taught constitutional law at Pepperdine University School of Law, which is well known as a center of conservative legal thought.</p>

<p>Although previously a conservative Republican and an ardent opponent of abortion rights, in 2008 Kmiec surprised many by announcing his support for the Presidential candidacy of Barack Obama. He wrote in March 2008 that he believed that Obama respected opposing opinions on life issues, and that the damage done to the Presidency by the George W. Bush administration demanded a change of course. As a direct result, a Catholic priest denied communion to Kmiec in May 2008, although the archbishop of Los Angeles later abjured this conduct. About a year after his Obama endorsement, Kmiec again surprised his friends on the religious right when he publicly criticized efforts to limit marriage to heterosexuals; instead, he argued that state governments should offer civil unions to all regardless of sexuality, with churches and other religious institutions responsible for performing marriages.</p>

<p>Kmiec is married to Carolyn Keenan, with whom he has five children. A Republican, in 2000 Kmiec donated $250 to the presidential campaign of George W. Bush.</p>

<p>Ambassador Kmiec practiced law with a well-respected Chicago law firm; began his teaching career at Valparaiso University; was awarded tenure and named director of the Center for Law and Government as the University of Notre Dame, where he taught for close to two decades and founded the Journal of Law and Ethics in Public Policy. He served as Dean and St. Thomas More Prof. at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.; and has been associated with Pepperdine, with breaks for government service, since 1995, when he came as a Straus Distinguished Visiting Scholar.</p>

<p>Beyond the university setting, Ambassador Kmiec served Presidents Ronald Reagan and George G.W. Bush during 1985-89 as Assistant and Deputy Assistant US Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice. He was nominated for foreign service to the Republic of Malta by President Barack Obama and served as chief of mission from 2009 to 2011. He was confirmed for both positions without dissenting vote in the U.S. Senate.</p>

<p>Highly respected in the Republic of Malta, the Ambassador was instrumental in the resettlement of close to eight hundred individual migrants and families seeking freedom from the violence and deprivation pervasive in sub-Saharan Africa. When an uprising required Embassy- Tripoli to close and its personnel to be evacuated, Ambassador Kmiec deployed a rented catamaran to return several hundred American citizens and other foreign nationals to safety.</p>

<p>A wide-ranging writer and engaging speaker, Ambassador Kmiec has appeared on national news programs such as Meet the Press and the Newshour and had a syndicated column for the Catholic News Service, and wrote a regular column in the Chicago Tribune. He still writes regularly for the Huffington Post.</p>

<p>Ambassador Kmiec is the co-editor of three casebooks on the United States Constitution as well as a two-volume treatise on land use. He has authored: an account of his service in the Department of Justice, The Atty. Gen's Lawyer (1992); the challenges of life and death during his ambassadorship, Lift Up Your Hearts (2012), and a popular book which had an electoral impact on the election of Barack Obama, Can a Catholic Support Him? (2008). A knowledgeable and scholarly Catholic voice in America, he has worked to promote interreligious understanding and civility. Recently the Oxford University published his thoughts on Secularism, Catholicism and the Future of Public Life, wherein Amb. Kmiec's work on religious freedom is examined by "an international cast of experts from a range of fields, including legal theory, international relations, journalism, religion, and social science." His first book, Cease-fire on the Family (1984) highlights the family as the cure for cultural malady.</p>

<p>A White House Fellow (1982-83), Professor Kmiec is one of a few individuals who has received the Distinguished Service Award from two cabinet departments-the Department of Justice and Housing and Urban Development. He was awarded the Edmund J. Randolph Award by the attorney general. He was honored as a 40th anniversary Fulbright distinguished scholar, and lectured in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.</p>

<p>Ambassador Kmiec is a member of the bar of the US Supreme Court, a number of federal appellate courts, the Court of International Trade and the state bars of Illinois and California.</p>