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By Kent Larsen
Young Named Chair of US Religious Freedom Commission
WASHINGTON, DC -- Michael K. Young, Dean of George Washington University Law
School and former president of the LDS Church's New York NY Stake has been
elected chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the
commission announced Monday. Young, who has been a member of the commission
since its 1999 inception, is an expert on Japanese law as well as on
religious freedom.
Young, a native of Utah, is a graduate of BYU (1973) and in 1976 received a
law degree from Harvard. He worked as a law clerk for U.S. Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist. By the mid 1980s he was on the faculty of Columbia
University's law school in New York City and served as President of the New
York, New York Stake at that time.
During the administration of President George Bush in the late 1980s, Young
was ambassador for trade and environmental affairs, a deputy undersecretary
of state for economic and agricultural affairs and deputy legal adviser to
the State Department. After Bush lost to Clinton in 1990, Young returned to
Columbia for several years before he was asked to be Dean at George Washington.
He was first named to a two-year term on the commission in June 1999, after
former Colorado senator Bill Armstrong resigned an appointment to the
commission for personal reasons before the commission took was officially
seated. Mormon legislators and others on Capitol Hill lobbied heavily for
Young's appointment, frustrating Evangelicals who felt one of their members
should have a seat on the Commission. He served as vice chairman of the
Commision for its first year, gaining notoriety for suggesting that the US
delay granting China Permanent Normal Trade Relations because of its human
rights record. Congress gave China that status despite the Commission's
suggestion.
This past June, Young was appointed to a second term on the commission by
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Young is one of nine voting members on
the commission, which researches and reports on religious freedom around the
world, making independent suggestions that further religious freedom to both
the US President and Congress.
Source:
U.S. panel elects LDS man
Deseret News 24Sep01 T2
By Lee Davidson: Deseret News Washington correspondent
See also:
Young Gets Another Term on Religious Freedom Commission
Michael Young: Having a 'Wonderfully Good Time'
LDS Commissioner Calls China Peril To Religion
LDS Law Professor Urges China To Tolerate Religion
LDS dean appointed to religious freedom panel
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