He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University in 1982[1] where he was a member of the ROTC program and inducted into Phi Beta Kappa society.

From 1988-89 he was a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit before returning to private practice from 1989 to 1990.

He was in private practice in Charlotte from 2001 to 2002, and was then the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina from 2002-06.

[2][3] Whitney was nominated by President George W. Bush on February 14, 2006, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina vacated by Judge Harold Brent McKnight.

Whitney was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 22, 2006,[4] and received his commission on July 5, 2006.