Michael Golden (judge)

Michael Golden
Chief Justice of Wyoming
In office 1994–1996
Preceded by	Richard J. Macy
Succeeded by	William A. Taylor
Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court
In office June 30, 1988 – August 30, 2012
Preceded by	Charles Stuart Brown
Succeeded by	Michael K. Davis
Personal details
Born	1942 (age 82–83) Enid, Oklahoma, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Wyoming

Thomas Michael Golden[1] (born 1942) is an American jurist who was a justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court.[2][3]

Biography

Golden was born on September 30, 1942, in Enid, Oklahoma.[4] In high school, he played baseball with Dick Cheney in Casper, Wyoming.[5] He received a B.A. in 1964 and a J.D. in 1967, both from the University of Wyoming.[2][3] In 1992, he received an LLM from the University of Virginia Law School.[2][3]

He served in the Judge Advocate General's Corps for four years.[2][3] In 1988, he was appointed as a Justice in the Wyoming Supreme Court.[2][3] From 1994 to 1996, he served as its chief justice.[2][3] In June 2011, he authored a decision to grant divorces to same-sex married couples, despite the illegality of same-sex marriage in Wyoming at the time.[6][7] Golden retired from the Wyoming Supreme Court in August 2012.

References

1. "Thomas Michael Golden, Outstanding Alumnus 2015". University of Wyoming. 2015.
2. NNDB
3. Official Justice biography Archived 2013-07-27 at the Wayback Machine
4. Wyoming State Archives (1991). Wyoming Blue Book (PDF). Vol. IV. p. 141.
5. Dick Cheney, In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir, New York, NY: Threshold Editions, 2011, p. 24
6. Roddy Flynn, 'Recent State Court Rulings Affect LGBT Citizens in Three States', Human Rights Campaign, June 21, 2011 "Recent State Court Rulings Affect LGBT Citizens in Three States | Backstory Blog | Human Rights Campaign". Archived from the original on 2011-11-06. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
7. Joan Barron, 'Wyoming Supreme Court reverses same-sex divorce ruling', in Casper Star-Tribune, June 7, 2011 [1]