WASHINGTON — The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom announced Monday that it has elected as its new chairman a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Michael K. Young, dean of the George Washington University Law School and a graduate of Brigham Young University, was named as the chairman. The commission was created in 1999 by Congress to give independent recommendations about religious freedom issues worldwide both to Congress and the executive branch.
Young's term as chairman will end in May.
Young previously served as the commission's vice chairman from June 1999 to June 2000.
He made headlines at that time by telling Congress on behalf of the commission that religious freedom was under such serious attack in China and that America should delay awarding its status of Permanent Normal Trade Relations. But Congress gave it that status anyway.
Young graduated from BYU in 1973 and from Harvard Law School in 1976. He was a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court.
He became dean of the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., in 1998, and taught previously at Columbia University.
During the administration of former President George H.W. Bush, 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.
Young was appointed to a second two-year term earlier this year by then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.
Three of the commission's nine voting members are appointed by the president. Another two are appointed by congressional leaders of the president's party. And four are appointed by congressional leaders of the opposition party.