THE WHITE HOUSE

                      Office of the Press Secretary 
                            (Newark, New Jersey)
______________________________________________________________________ 
For Immediate Release                                  October 8, 1997 

PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES MICHAEL B. THORNTON TO U.S. TAX COURT

Today, President Clinton announced his intent to nominate Michael B. Thornton to the United States Tax Court.

Mr. Thornton, a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is currently the Treasury Department's Deputy Tax Legislative Counsel. Previously, he served for six years as Tax Counsel, then Chief Minority Tax Counsel, on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means. Prior to that, he was an associate with the law firm of Miller & Chevalier, of Washington, D.C., with a broad-based tax practice.

Mr. Thornton earned a B.S. summa cum laude and an M.S. in Accounting from the University of Southern Mississippi, an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Tennessee, and a J.D. from Duke University of School of Law.

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