and writing career From 1972 to 1973, Wilkinson served as a law clerk to newly confirmed Justice Powell, long a family friend. Following his clerkship, Wilkinson declined joining a large law firm. Instead, he returned to Charlottesville and joined the University of Virginia School of Law faculty, where he taught as an associate professor for five years. Wilkinson also wrote and published his second book, about his clerkship with Justice Powell: Serving Justice: A Supreme Court Clerk's View (1974). Wilkinson also spent three years (1978–1981) working for Norfolk's The Virginian-Pilot, including as editorial page editor. He later credited this with broadening his practical experience of both government at many levels, and with people in all walks of life, as well as helping his time management skills. In 1979, Wilkinson published his third book, From Brown to Bakke. In 1982, Wilkinson resumed his legal career, joining the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, eventually becoming deputy assistant attorney general. Federal judicial service On November 10, 1983, as Wilkinson briefly returned to teach at the University of Virginia School of Law as a full professor, President Ronald Reagan nominated him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit seat vacated by Judge John D. Butzner Jr., who retired. Despite some controversy and after hearings on November 16, 1983, and February 22, 1984, the United States Senate confirmed Wilkinson on August 9, 1984, by a 58–39 vote. He received his commission on August 13, 1984. From 1996 to 2003, Wilkinson served as the court's chief judge, during which time he wrote and published his fourth book, One Nation Indivisible: How Ethnic Separatism Threatens America (1997). In 2003, Judge Wilkinson wrote the majority opinion upholding the right of the United States government to detain Yaser Esam Hamdi indefinitely without access to counsel or a court. Hamdi was a U.S. citizen captured during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, and the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately overturned that decision. With the announcement of Chief Justice Rehnquist's illness in the fall of 2004, many commentators listed Wilkinson as a potential Bush nominee to the Supreme Court. Wilkinson agreed to an interview with The New York Times, reportedly undermining his candidacy amongst the Bush inner circle. In 2006, Wilkinson penned an op-ed article in The Washington Post, castigating both the left and right on the issue of gay marriage. Writing that the "American