This year, the Honorable David B. Sentelle is retiring from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He heard his last oral argument in April, and Judge Sentelle's opinion from that sitting was issued on Friday. Earlier this month the court held a retirement celebration and the judge hosted one last clerk reunion.
Judge Sentelle was appointed to the D.C. Circuit in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan, and he took senior status in 2013. While on the D.C. Circuit he served as the presiding judge of the Special Division appointing and overseeing independent counsels. The D.C. CIrcuit Historical Society interviewed Judge Sentelle as a part of its oral history project.
Prior to his move to Washington, Judge Sentelle had served as a federal district court judge, a state district court judge, and an assistant U.S. attorney, and he had also worked a decade in private practice. Service on the federal bench may have required Judge Sentelle to leave North Carolina, but North Carolina never left him.
