Judge Don Willett
Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
Donny Ray Willett was born in July 1966 in Dallas, Texas. He earned an undergraduate degree from Baylor University and received a Master of Arts, a Juris Doctor, and a Master of Laws from Duke University. He clerked for a judge on the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Willett practiced employment and labor law in Austin, Texas, and served on the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He served in then-Governor George W. Bush’s administration as Director of Research and Special Projects. Willett worked on his presidential campaign and then served in President Bush’s administration as a special assistant and a director for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He was appointed to the Justice Department as an assistant attorney general.
Willett went back to Texas to serve in the office of then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. He was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in 2005. He then won election to the position.
Willett was nominated by President Donald Trump to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in October 2017. He was confirmed by the Senate in December and received his judicial commission in January 2018.
Willett is married to Tiffany, and they have three children.
In the News…
Judge Don Willett of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals cited the Bill of Rights, which contains the Second Amendment, in suggesting that Congress may lack the authority to restrict firearm ownership in a recent gun control case.
Judge Willett stated, “18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)—the federal felon-in-possession ban—rests uneasily alongside a bedrock principle: ‘Every law enacted by Congress must be based on one or more of its powers enumerated in the Constitution.'”
He continued, “This case vividly illustrates the Constitution’s deliberate redundancy. Individual liberty is preserved not by any single safeguard, but by “four interlocking mechanisms” working in concert: representative government, separation of powers, federalism, and the Bill of Rights. The Framers trusted none of them to suffice on its own.”
“When the Bill of Rights halts an aggressive assertion of federal power, it should sharpen our respect for those limits—not lull us into forgetting them,” Judge Willet wrote. “The Judiciary should heed that lesson as well. In an appropriate case, I remain open to reconsidering whether § 922(g)(1) truly falls within Congress’s enumerated powers.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Judge Willett today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Don Willet
U.S. Court of Appeals For The Fifth Circuit
John Minor Wisdom United States Court of Appeals Building
600 Camp Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
