State judicial service In 1982, after sixteen years in private law practice, Messitte ran for a seat on the
Maryland Circuit Court for
Montgomery County; he lost the race, but Governor
Harry R. Hughes appointed him to the court in 1985. Higgs was executed in 2020, by which time capital punishment had been abolished in Maryland state law. In 2014, in a trademark case brought by
Barrett Green against the
Washington Redskins (
Green v. Pro Football, Inc. d/b/a The Washington Redskins), Messitte banned the use of
the controversial slur "Redskins") in his courtroom and in court documents, "unless reference is made to a direct quote where the name appears." In 2018, in the case
D.C. and Maryland v. Trump, Messitte denied
Donald Trump's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Maryland and the District of Columbia against Trump alleging violation of the
Domestic Emoluments Clause and
Foreign Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. A three-judge panel of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dismissed the case in July 2019, with the panel ruling that the Maryland and D.C. attorneys general lacked legal standing to sue. All three judges were appointed by Republican presidents. However, the full court vacated the panel decision, and voted to rehear the appeal
en banc. In a May 2020 decision, the full Fourth Circuit rejected Trump's attempt to have the case dismissed on the grounds of "
presidential immunity" by a 9-to-6 majority, reviving the lawsuit. Messitte was assigned to preside over a challenge to the
Purple Line (a
light rail line to be built in Maryland), but he
recused himself in 2020 because his home is near a future Purple Line station. In
HIAS Inc. v. Trump (2020), Messitte issued a nationwide
preliminary injunction blocking Trump's executive order that required refugee-resettlement organizations to obtain letters of consent from states and local jurisdictions before settling refugees. Ruling in favor of
Church World Service,
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and
HIAS, Messitte found that giving
governors and other state and local officials "the power to veto where refugees may be resettled" contravened the
Refugee Act of 1980's text, structure, purpose, and congressional intent, and also was a likely violation of the
Administrative Procedure Act. Messitte also ruled that the executive order "does not appear to serve the overall public interest" but "granting the preliminary injunctive relief Plaintiffs seek does." The Fourth Circuit affirmed Messitte's order.
Other activities Messitte spent decades working on
judicial reform activities internationally, principally in Brazil, but also in other Latin American countries and in Turkey, Thailand, and Yemen. He spoke Spanish and Portuguese. During Brazil's
transition to democracy, Messitte helped Brazil as it established
discretionary review and
binding precedent for its courts. Brazil has honored Messitte for his work with the nation's judiciary: he was made an honorary citizen of
São Paulo and in June 2017 was awarded the
Order of the Southern Cross (the nation's highest award open for foreigners) by Brazilian President
Michel Temer at a ceremony in the
Presidential Palace of
Brasília. ==References==