Michael Mukasey

Michael B. Mukasey (born July 28, 1941) is an American jurist and attorney who served as the 81st United States Attorney General from November 2007 to January 2009 under President George W. Bush. Prior to that appointment, Mukasey spent nearly two decades as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, where he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 and elevated to Chief Judge in 2000, a position he held until his retirement from the bench in 2006.

Mukasey's judicial tenure was marked by handling complex and high-stakes cases, particularly in national security and terrorism, including presiding over the trial of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and co-defendants charged in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot. He also ruled on matters involving suspected terrorist Jose Padilla, authorizing his initial detention. Earlier in his career, after graduating from Columbia College in 1963 and Yale Law School in 1968, Mukasey worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1972 to 1978, gaining foundational experience in federal prosecution.

Mukasey's upbringing was shaped by his Orthodox Jewish heritage, with early education emphasizing religious and secular studies. He began first grade at Yeshiva Torah V'emunah, a local yeshiva near the family home, before his mother enrolled him at the Ramaz School, a Modern Orthodox preparatory institution in Manhattan known for its rigorous dual curriculum. He graduated from Ramaz in 1959. This transition reflected the family's commitment to a comprehensive Jewish education amid urban immigrant-rooted challenges.

Michael Mukasey attended the Ramaz School, an Orthodox Jewish day school in Manhattan emphasizing both religious and secular studies, graduating in 1959. This education provided a foundation in rigorous academic discipline alongside Talmudic scholarship, common in yeshiva high schools of the era. Prior to Ramaz, he began elementary education at Yeshiva Torah V'emunah in the Bronx, reflecting his family's Orthodox Jewish heritage.