M. Miller Baker was appointed as a Judge of the United States Court of International Trade on December 18, 2019, by President Donald J. Trump. Judge Baker entered on duty on December 20, 2019.

A native of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, Judge Baker grew up in Louisiana and Wyoming and attended Louisiana State University. Judge Baker thereafter earned his J.D. from Tulane University Law School and was admitted to the Louisiana bar in 1984 at age 22. After graduating from Tulane, he served as a law clerk to Judge John Malcolm Duhé, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana and then for Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Following his judicial clerkships, from 1986 until the end of the Reagan Administration on January 20, 1989, Judge Baker served in the Justice Department under Attorneys General Edwin Meese III and Richard Thornburgh, first as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legal Policy, and later as a special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Judge Baker then entered private practice in Washington, D.C., until 1991. From 1991 to 1993 he served as counsel to Senator Orrin G. Hatch on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Following his service on the Judiciary Committee staff, Judge Baker returned to private practice in Washington, D.C., focusing on complex civil litigation involving a wide range of subjects at the law firms of Carr Goodson Warner (1993–2000) and McDermott Will & Emery LLP (2000–2019). At McDermott, Judge Baker co-chaired the firm’s appellate practice group.

When he was in private practice, Judge Baker argued before the Supreme Court, nine of the thirteen federal courts of appeals, and appellate courts in three states and the District of Columbia. In 2009, The American Lawyer named Judge Baker as “Litigator of the Week” for one of his Supreme Court wins. In addition to his appellate practice, Judge Baker litigated in state and federal trial courts in seventeen states and the District of Columbia.

From 1986 to 1995, Judge Baker served as a naval reserve intelligence officer and received an honorable discharge. His duties included serving with an anti-terrorist unit, on the battle staff of an admiral commanding a carrier battle group operating in the North Atlantic during a large NATO exercise in the Cold War, and as a watch officer in the Navy Command Center in the Pentagon during the Persian Gulf War.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Judge Baker testified before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on constitutional and policy issues associated with continuity of government. He also testified before the Continuity of Government Commission, a bipartisan study commission established by the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution. 

Judge Baker and his wife Margaret have five children, two of whom are active duty military officers.

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