Sherman Edward Unger[1] (October 9, 1927 – December 3, 1983) was a former official in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, with his final role being the top lawyer for the United States Department of Commerce.
He then worked in private legal practice in Cincinnati as an associate and then as a partner for the firm of Frost & Jacobs from 1956 until 1969, when he became the general counsel of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
[2] On December 15, 1982, Reagan nominated Unger to a newly created seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The ABA's committee members who had investigated Unger, including former Secretary of Transportation William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr. and committee chair and future Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief Brooksley Born, had testified that he was not qualified "because he lacked the personal integrity and judicial temperament required of a federal judge."
However, many supporters vouched for Unger's personal integrity, including Democrats from the Carter administration like former White House counsel Lloyd Cutler and former United States Attorney General Griffin Bell.